Tesla Inc and Twitter Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk said on Thursday that he has found a new CEO for Twitter, but did not name the person, while the Wall Street Journal reported that Comcast’s NBCUniversal head of advertising Linda Yaccarino was in talks for the job.
“Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~ 6 weeks,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
Musk said he would transition to the role of chief technology officer of the social media platform within the next few weeks.
Photo: AFP
Musk, who took over as CEO of Twitter when he completed a US$44 billion purchase of the company in October last year, in December said that he would step aside as CEO once he found “someone foolish enough to take the job.”
The Journal cited people familiar with the situation as saying that Yaccarino was in talks for the top post.
Reuters reported after Musk’s tweet that Yaccarino could be his choice to lead Twitter, according to a Silicon Valley executive and a former Hollywood executive who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Yaccarino, the top advertising sales executive at NBCUniversal, interviewed Musk at an advertising conference in Miami, Florida, last month.
At the conference, Yaccarino encouraged the audience to welcome Musk with applause and lauded his work ethic.
“Many of you in this room know me, and you know I pride myself on my work ethic,” she said, adding: “Buddy, I met my match.”
Yaccarino joined NBCUniversal in 2011, after 15 years at Turner Entertainment, and has been credited with dragging the network’s advertising sales operation into the digital future.
When asked for comment, an NBCUniversal spokesperson said: “Linda is in back-to-back rehearsals for the Upfront,” referring to a presentation NBCUniversal would host for advertisers in New York on Monday.
Yaccarino’s exit would be another big blow to the company after Comcast last month said that NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell was leaving after acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, following a complaint that prompted an investigation.
Musk has previously not named any prospective candidates.
Speculation was rife on Thursday among tech and media insiders, and on Blind, an anonymous messaging app for tech employees.
Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and a top executive at Musk’s brain-chip start-up Neuralink, Shivon Zilis, were among names being discussed.
Musk, who has come under fire from investors in his Tesla electric-vehicle company as being distracted by his attention to Twitter, said he would transition to the role of Twitter’s executive chair, along with the role of chief technical officer, overseeing product, software and system operations.
Musk’s post about a new Twitter CEO came about 15 minutes before the close of Wall Street on Thursday, and Tesla shares closed 2 percent higher.
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