Musk picks ad exec Linda Yaccarino as Twitter CEO

Elon Musk has chosen top ad executive Linda Yaccarino to take the day-to-day reins of Twitter as he fights to reverse the tide at the struggling platform he bought for $44 billion last year.

Yaccarino is a highly respected advertising executive who stepped down from NBCUniversal "effective immediately" on Friday as rumours swirled that she would replace the mercurial tycoon as Twitter CEO.

Twitter is struggling to find its footing after Musk's controversial takeover that saw him fire thousands of staff and welcome back far-right and controversial figures on the platform, scaring off its highest paying advertisers.

Musk on Thursday teased Yaccarino's hiring, saying in a tweet that he had hired a woman to replace him as boss of Twitter and its newly named X Corporation parent, but without revealing the name.

Yaccarino's departure from the company that owns NBC, Universal and Telemundo -- where she has been since 2011 -- came a few weeks after she interviewed Musk at a marketing conference in Miami.

Asked by Yaccarino at the time how it's been going since the acquisition, Musk replied: "It's going well...It's entertaining....It's a train wreck sometimes."

Yaccarino will face an uphill battle trying to lure back major advertisers that are afraid of unwanted associations with conspiracy theorists and far-right content makers who Musk encouraged back to Twitter.

As a leading member of the US media establishment, Yaccarino's hiring blindsided that audience, with her senior role at the World Economic Forum especially singled out for vitriol.

Yaccarino "is a vaccine-pushing, pro mask-wearing, WEF globalist," wrote conservative website Outkick.

Conspiracy Twitter is currently in meltdown after finding out Elon Musk's likely Twitter CEO appointee Linda Yaccarino is an executive chair of the World Economic Forum, an organisation they view as one of the roots of all evil in the world. pic.twitter.com/loahwaLnv3

— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) May 12, 2023

In a tweet, Musk said he would remain in charge of design and technology at Twitter, with Yaccarino focusing primarily on business operations and turning Twitter into an "everything app" called X.

Musk's history with the letter X goes back to 1999 when he helped created X.com, an online bank that was bought and later morphed into PayPal.

He has also longed to create a so-called everything app that would be modelled on China's WeChat, which functions as a Twitter-like social media platform as well as offering messaging and mobile payments.

I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!@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. https://t.co/TiSJtTWuky

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2023

'Hands full' 

According to NBCUniversal's website, Yaccarino led a team of 2,000 people there and "re-engineered the advertising business for the 21st century."

Her job involved nurturing relationships with the world's biggest companies in order to get them to shell out money to advertise on the NBCU family of channels.

"Yaccarino is exactly what Twitter needs to regain advertiser trust and bring back big brands," said Jasmine Engberg, an analyst for Insider Intelligence.

"She will also bring back the professionalism that Twitter has lost under Musk (but) that said, she's still going to have her hands full," she added.

Musk has fully owned Twitter since late October and has repeatedly courted controversy as CEO, sacking most of its staff, readmitting far-right figures to the platform, suspending journalists and charging for previously free services.

With Yaccarino's hiring, he is belatedly fulfilling the promise he made to honour the results of a Twitter poll he posted in December.

In that unscientific survey, a total of 57.5 per cent of more than 17 million accounts voted for him to step down.

Wall Street had grown frustrated that Twitter was luring Musk away from his other businesses, and share prices in Tesla rose on news he had found a CEO.