Elon Musk hires new CEO for Twitter
What's the story
Elon Musk has hired a new CEO for Twitter aka X, the billionaire has confirmed via a tweet. Without naming the person, Musk said that "she will be starting in about six weeks." While rumors are rife about Twitter's new top boss, Wall Street Journal has reported that Comcast NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino was in talks for the role.
New role for Musk
Musk will oversee product and software development
Talking about his role at Twitter, Musk said he will transition to being executive chair as well as chief technology officer. He will focus on product development, software, and system-related operations. The latest development comes months after Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion. In December he said he would step aside as CEO once he had found "someone foolish enough to take the job."
Twitter Post
Take a look at Musk's post
Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2023
My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.
Plans
Musk took over Twitter in October last year
It has been known, however, that Musk had intended to find a new chief for Twitter. In a poll conducted in December last year, 57.5% of users voted for him to step down as CEO of the platform. Musk took over Twitter in October. He immediately fired former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and other executives and then sacked half of the workforce in November.
Speculations
Serious discussions were held on the anonymous messaging app Blind
While Musk did not name potential candidates, there were serious discussions held among the company's employees on an anonymous messaging app called Blind. Marissa Mayer, the former CEO of Yahoo, came up in conversations, according to one employee. Other names which were also discussed included Susan Wojcicki, former YouTube CEO, and Shivon Zilis, a top executive at Musk's Neuralink, a brain-chip start-up.
Information
Other female executives from Musk's companies could also be named
Top female executives from Musk's other companies, like Gwynne Shotwell, President of SpaceX, and Robyn Denholm, Chairman of Tesla could also be named, per Jason Benowitz, senior portfolio manager at CI Roosevelt.
WSJ
Yaccarino has been working with NCBU since 2015
Following Musk's tweet, Reuters reported that Yaccarino might be his choice to head Twitter, according to a Silicon Valley executive who chose to remain anonymous. Yaccarino has refused to make any comments on the matter, per reports. She has been working with NCBU since 2015, after spending 15 years at Turner Entertainment. She interviewed Musk last month at an advertising conference.