Twitter’s owner, billionaire Elon Musk, has stated that the social media network will have a new CEO in roughly six weeks. The new CEO is said to be a woman whose identity has yet to be revealed. This announcement comes after Musk’s pledge to transition to the role of executive chairman and chief technology officer of Twitter.
Musk said in a tweet, “Excited to share that I’ve recruited a new CEO for X/Twitter.” She will begin in 6 weeks! My role will change to that of the executive chair and CTO, controlling product, software, and sysops.”
Musk hasn’t revealed who the new CEO will be, but the Wall Street Journal reports that NBCU’s head of advertising Linda Yaccarino will be the new Twitter CEO. The agreement is not yet finalized. According to a Verge report, Yaccarino has been striving for the top job at Twitter and has even spoken to her acquaintances about it. Yaccarino recently met with Elon Musk at the “Possible” advertising conference in Miami, which was followed by many tweets on Twitter’s collaboration with NBC for the Paris Olympics 2024 coverage.
Previously, when Musk paid €40.24 billion for Twitter in 2021, he had no intention of becoming the company’s permanent CEO. He testified in a Delaware court in November of the same year that he did not want to be the CEO of any corporation. He stated that he intended to cut back on his time at Twitter and find someone else to lead the company.
Musk announced in December that he would quit as CEO as soon as he found someone foolish enough to take the position after millions of Twitter followers begged him to step down in a poll he conducted. He also stated that he expected Twitter to find a CEO “probably towards the end of this year.”
Musk’s term as CEO of Twitter has been controversial with his moves seen as detrimental to the company’s ad business. According to Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg, Musk is “the single biggest problem with Twitter’s ad business.” She believes that by stepping aside, Twitter will be able to separate Musk’s personal brand from the company’s corporate image and regain advertisers’ trust.
A new CEO for Twitter is viewed as the company’s only way forward. It is anticipated that the new CEO will separate Musk’s personal brand from the company’s corporate image and assist Twitter in regaining advertisers’ trust. The effectiveness of these efforts will be determined by who becomes CEO.
