Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, has announced that he will be stepping down as CEO of Twitter and has chosen a ‘successor,’ a woman who will be starting in approximately six weeks. Musk has been overseeing the social media platform for six months, during which time he has implemented mass layoffs, made content moderation changes, and changed the blue-check verification system. He also has plans to morph Twitter into a “super app.”
Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!
My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2023
New CEO of Twitter
Musk did not reveal the identity of the new CEO, but sources familiar with the situation suggest that Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s advertising chief, is in talks to take over the position.
Yaccarino, a former Trump political appointee, is specialized in advertising. Musk and Yaccarino appeared on stage together at a conference hosted by the digital marketing trade group MMA Global last month.
After his successor takes over, Musk will transition to executive chairman and chief technology officer, overseeing products and software.
In November, during a trial over his compensation at Tesla, Musk said that he did not plan to remain at the helm of Twitter and that he would find someone else to run it over time. He has indicated that reducing his time commitment was his plan all along.
“There’s an initial burst of activity needed post-acquisition to reorganize the company. I’d find someone else to run Twitter over time.”
Moreover, Tesla’s stock saw a boost following Musk’s announcement. Shares closed up 2.1% at $172.08 on Thursday and continued to climb in after-hours trading. Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives called the new CEO hire “a positive development for Tesla as well as SpaceX with Musk needing to spend more and more time on these golden child platforms rather than Twitter.”
Musk has faced increasing pressure to turn his attention back to Tesla, and this move may allow him to do so.
