Musk makes advertising expert Linda Yaccarino head of Twitter

Tech billionaire Elon Musk puts the post at Twitter in the hands of an advertising expert after a chaotic six months. Musk announced in a tweet that he welcomed Linda Yaccarino as CEO, confirming recent US media reports. The new managing director of the short message service was most recently in charge of the advertising business at the media giant NBCUniversal.

Yaccarino’s decades of experience could help Twitter bring some calm to key advertisers that Musk scared off with his erratic leadership style. In the future, he wants to take care of products and software as head of technology. It is unclear how much freedom of action the new manager will have alongside Musk.

Musk had announced the day before that he wanted to give up the boss job soon. A successor has been found and will take over in about six weeks, he wrote in a tweet. He didn’t mention a name. Media reports quickly surfaced that it was Yaccarino who was negotiating with Twitter. NBC Universal announced on Friday that she was leaving the company, effective immediately.

The interview

Yaccarino was responsible for the global advertising business at NBC Universal. The group includes the US broadcaster NBC and the streaming service Peacock. Previously, she worked extensively in Warner’s TV business. NBC Universal recently struck a deal with Twitter for footage from the Paris 2024 Olympics. “Variety” wrote, citing Yaccarino’s environment, that she had long expressed her admiration for Musk. In mid-April, she interviewed him on stage at an industry conference, showing sympathy for his views and stated goals.

Musk bought Twitter for around $44 billion in October, fired all top managers and took over the leadership himself. After that, advertising revenue collapsed – Twitter’s main source of income. Many advertisers feared a negative environment for their products on the service. In December, after controversy surrounding his leadership style, Musk had Twitter users vote on whether he should vacate the top post – and a good 57 percent of the 17.5 million participants voted in favor.

After that, nothing happened at first, although Musk had assured that he would stick to the outcome of the vote. So he said he first had to find someone “crazy” enough to accept the job offer. In February he announced that he would hand over the post at the end of the year. In April he then told the BBC that his dog was the head of Twitter.