Elon Musk announces top NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino as new Twitter CEO - with name change on the way

12 May 2023, 17:40

By Kieran Kelly

@kellyjourno

Elon Musk has announced Linda Yaccarino as Twitter's new CEO, while also suggesting the social media site's name could be changing.

Mr Musk teased the announcement of his new CEO on Twitter on Thursday, revealing that he had hired a woman, but did not reveal anything about her.

Today, he tweeted: "I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!

"She will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.

"Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app."

Ms Yaccarino resigned as NBCUniversal's head of advertising earlier on Friday amid speculation she could be taking over from Mr Musk as CEO.

She interviewed Mr Musk at a marketing event in April, boasting about her "work ethic", which prompted rumours she would be taking over.

Speaking on Thursday, Mr Musk announced his new CEO would be starting in six weeks time but did not initially reveal her name or anything about her.

He tweeted: "Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!

"My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops."

It comes after Mr Musk, who also owns Tesla and SpaceX, told the World Government Summit in Dubai that he would hand over control of Twitter by the end of the year.

"I need to stabilise the organisation and just make sure it’s in a financially healthy place and the product road map is clearly laid out," he said.

Read More: Briton pleads guilty to Twitter hack that included Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk

It comes amid a difficult couple of months for the social media site following its bonfire of blue ticks, which revealed thousands of celebrities chose not to subscribe to Twitter blue.

Days later, a number of accounts with more than one million followers saw their blue ticks return, giving them the benefits of Twitter blue, despite not paying for it.

Meanwhile, other users found a bug on the site that allowed them to edit the profile and temporarily reinstate their blue tick without paying for the service.

Read More: Twitter bug allows users to reclaim blue tick without paying for monthly subscription fee

Mr Musk acquired Twitter for $44bn in October but has repeatedly said he would consider selling it.

At the end of last year, Mr Musk lost an online poll of millions of Twitter users asking them if they would like him to step down as CEO.

He then said that his dog was made CEO of the company.