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Following through on his claim from yesterday, Twitter founder and current CEO Elon Musk today announced that Linda Yaccarino will join from NBCUniversal to take over the CEO role.
Yaccarino is NBCUniversal’s Chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships, and her expected hiring was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday amid talks for Twitter’s top job.
According to Musk’s tweet today, Yaccarino “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design [and] new technology,” he wrote. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app,” he added.
I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!@LindaYacc 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. https://t.co/TiSJtTWuky
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2023
Musk purchased the prominent social media platform last fall and immediately took over as CEO, spurring a controversial reign that has led to the replatforming of controversial banned users (including former U.S. president Donald Trump), an overhaul of the Twitter Blue verified users model built around paid subscriptions, persistent technical issues, and mass layoffs.
On Thursday, Musk said that his then-unnamed replacement would begin in about six weeks, although a formal start date has yet to be officially confirmed. Yaccarino spent nearly 12 years at NBCUniversal, and before that spent 20 years at fellow broadcasting giant Turner.
Musk previously signaled ambitions to transform the social media platform into a broader “super app” called X, following the framework established by China’s WeChat and other popular global apps that include shopping functionality, payments support, and more. Musk is a famed supporter of Dogecoin and has teased potential support for crypto payments on Twitter.