MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Linda Yaccarino is Twitter's new CEO as Elon Musk steps down

Yaccarino will have to deal with the fallout that has taken place since Musk's arrival, including an exodus of advertisers

According to the Washington Post, Linda Yaccarino has been chosen to succeed tycoon Elon Musk as CEO of Twitter. She was working as president of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal. The announcement comes the day after Musk said he would be stepping down and that he will move into the role of executive chairman and CTO (chief technology officer). In December, Musk asked his Twitter followers if he should step down as CEO and 57.5% said yes.

Yaccarino had been with NBCUniversal since 2011 and played a key role in launching the Peacock ad-supported streaming service and overseeing major events such as the Super Bowl and the Olympics. She also led partnerships with several tech companies, including Snapchat, YouTube, and Twitter. NBCUniversal was rocked last month by the firing of its CEO, Jeff Shell, following a sexual harassment complaint filed by a female employee.

Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla Inc (TSLA) and Space Exploration Technologies Corp, has drawn criticism for his abrupt policy changes on Twitter and neglect of his other businesses. He has also said he wants to take Twitter beyond social networking and make it an “app for everything,” including financial services.

Musk announced on Thursday that he would be stepping down in six weeks. “Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter,” Musk tweeted. “She will be starting in ~6 weeks!”

Musk installed himself as CEO after acquiring the company for around $44 billion last October. In the months since, he has rolled back many of the platform’s restrictive speech policies and released troves of documents detailing its collaboration under previous management with the US government and pro-censorship NGOs to stifle anti-establishment content.

Musk also fired around three-quarters of Twitter’s staff and introduced a controversial paid subscription model in a bid to make the company profitable.

Yaccarino will have to deal with the fallout that has taken place since Musk's arrival, including an exodus of advertisers. The company's Twitter Blue subscription service plan has also faltered.

Musk bought Twitter for US$44 billion last October and indicated he would only be at the helm for a limited time to complete the organizational overhaul he believed the company needed to thrive. Musk complained of having “too much work” and sleeping at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters while implementing sweeping changes.