Elon Musk, who has owned Twitter since October, recently announced that he has found a successor to take over as CEO of the company. Musk shared this news on May 11, mentioning that the new CEO would assume the position in six weeks.
“Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!” the billionaire entrepreneur said, adding that he will transition to a behind-the-scenes role.
“My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.”
The following day, Musk put an end to the anticipation by revealing the identity of the individual who accepted this highly challenging role; Linda Yaccarino emerged as the chosen candidate.
“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk announced on May 12. “@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.”
However, based on the information available from these tweets, it appears that Yaccarino has not yet assumed her duties as CEO. This assumption is supported by the fact that her former employer, NBCUniversal, issued a statement on May 12 confirming her departure.
“Thank you @elonmusk!” the new Chief Executive Officer posted on May 13. “I’ve long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future. I’m excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!”
She then added: “I see I have some new followers?…? I’m not as prolific as @elonmusk (yet!), but I’m just as committed to the future of this platform. Your feedback is VITAL to that future. I’m here for all of it. Let’s keep the conversation going and build Twitter 2.0 together!”
“We are grateful for Linda Yaccarino’s leadership of NBCUniversal’s Advertising Sales business, and for the innovative team and platform she has built,” said Mike Cavanagh, Comcast’s CEO. “Linda has made countless contributions to the company during her twelve year tenure, and we wish her the best.”
A discrepancy arises from Yaccarino’s LinkedIn profile, where she claims to have taken on the role of CEO at Twitter in March. TheStreet discovered this discrepancy on May 14 and further noted that she has been associated with Twitter for three months, as indicated in the “Experience” section of her profile.
“Chief Executive Officer
Twitter · Full-time
Mar 2023 – Present · 3 mos
Global · On-site.”
When contacted for a response to media requests, Twitter responded with a poop emoji, indicating their lack of engagement with such inquiries for several weeks.
Following the publication of TheStreet’s article, Yaccarino made a correction to her profile several hours later. The updated information now states that she began her tenure at Twitter in May.