Musk Taps Linda Yaccarino As Twitter CEO Replacement

Topline

Elon Musk named NBCUniversal’s former head of advertising and partnerships, Linda Yaccarino, as his successor as Twitter CEO on Friday, confirming earlier reports as the social media company looks to turn around its slumping ad business.

Linda Yaccarino is out at NBC after over a decade.

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Key Facts

In an announcement tweet, Musk said Yaccarino will “focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.”

Yaccarino will help “transform this platform into X, the everything app,” Musk vowed, referring to his ambitions to make the social media app into an all-encompassing product spanning mobile payments, messaging and more.

NBCUniversal announced Yaccarino’s departure after 12 years at the company earlier Friday without naming a reason, but several outlets reported Yaccarino was the unnamed selection Musk announced Thursday to replace him as Twitter CEO next month.

What To Watch For

Musk and Yaccarino will host a joint question and answer session on Twitter when the latter is “ready,” Musk tweeted Friday afternoon, promising to answer “anything.”

Key Background

A 1985 graduate of Penn State, Yaccarino is also a high-ranking member of the World Economic Forum, the organization best-known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which brings together some of the richest and most influential people in the world. Yaccarino will contend with a shrinking valuation for Twitter, which reportedly now estimates itself to be worth $20 billion, less than half of the $44 billion price tag Musk bought the company for last year. Dragging down Twitter’s valuation is its crumbling relationship with a glut of advertising partners thanks to a variety of changes to the platform, including the addition of verification badges as part of Twitter Blue subscriptions and a rollback of most content moderation policies. Twitter suffered a “massive decline” in advertising revenue while Musk has been at the helm, the billionaire said in March. Ad sales accounted for 92% of Twitter’s total revenues in 2022’s second quarter, the last period for which the company’s financials are publicly available.

Contra

Musk’s decision to hire Yaccarino faced some early pushback from mostly right-wing figures who pointed to her prior endorsement of public health measures during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, social justice initiatives and Davos involvement, the latter of which has been the subject of unfounded conspiracies about the nefarious actions of attendees. Musk, who portrays himself as a political centrist but often rubs elbows with the fringe right, responded to criticism: "I think people from both sides of the political spectrum will find Linda to be smart, fair and reasonable."

Crucial Quote

Yaccarino is a “home run hire” for Twitter thanks to her extensive advertising experience, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives as the company fights to regain the crucial ad dollars it’s reportedly lost under Musk.

Tangent

Shares of Tesla rallied as much as 4% after Musk tweeted Thursday afternoon he found a replacement to become Twitter’s CEO, adding about $15 billion in market value as Musk freed up time to refocus on his role as Tesla’s CEO. Tesla’s gains were wiped out by mid-day Friday amid a broader market downturn. Yaccarino’s hiring frees Musk up to “devote more time to Tesla, which is exactly what I will be doing,” Musk asserted Friday. Ives estimates Tesla’s stock is worth about 8% more now that Musk will no longer serve as Twitter’s CEO.

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