NBCUniversal’s global advertising head Linda Yaccarino has resigned from the media giant to join the social media platform company Twitter as its next chief executive. This hiring was confirmed by Twitter’s owner Elon Musk, who is also known as the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla as well.
“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Wrote Musk in a tweet. Musk said that Yaccarino will focus mostly on business operations. Musk is going to focus on product design and new technology on Twitter going forward.
Musk also pointed out that Yaccarino will oversee the transformation of Twitter into “X, the everything app.” Musk has an interest in Twitter becoming a super app that would offer a number of services beyond social media.
Yaccarino started at NBCUniversal in 2011 and has strong ties to many chief marketing officers and ad executives, which will be especially crucial for Twitter’s future. After Musk acquired Twitter, many companies pulled their ad budgets from the platform due to fears of being associated with divisive content. Musk had reinstated the accounts of many users who were banned in the past for posting controversial content.
Shortly after Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October, many costs were cut and thousands of employees were laid off. To make up for ad losses, Musk has been pushing the paid subscription service Twitter Blue – which features perks like longer tweets and a verified account badge.
The appointment of Yaccarino as the head of Twitter comes shortly after she sat with Musk at a marketing conference in Florida last month. The focus of that conversation was the role marketers have in Twitter’s future. Yaccarino is leaving NBCUniversal a few weeks after the company ousted Jeff Shell as the company CEO due to an inappropriate relationship with an employee.
Mark Marshall – the current president of ad sales and client partnerships – will become interim chairman of the company’s ad and partnerships group. Marshall is going to report to Mark Lazarus, who is chairman of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.
