Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Twitter owner, Mr Elon Musk, has named a new chief executive officer (CEO) of the company just over six months after his controversial takeover of the social media firm.
The billionaire said Ms Linda Yaccarino, the former head of advertising at NBCUniversal, would oversee business operations at the site, which has been struggling to make money.
He said she would start in six weeks while he remains as executive chairman and chief technology officer (CTO).
“Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app,” he wrote on Twitter, confirming the decision a day after he had stoked speculation by writing that he had found a new boss without revealing their identity.
Mr Musk – who bought the social media platform last year for $44 billion – had been under pressure to find someone else to lead the company and refocus his attention on his other businesses, which include electric carmaker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX.
A graduate of Penn State who now lives outside of New York City on Long Island, she worked at Turner Entertainment for 15 years before joining NBCUniversal, where she oversaw roughly 2,000 people and was involved with the launch of its streaming service.
Ms Yaccarino brings to Twitter a deep background in advertising, which the social media company relies on to make money and which has dropped sharply since Mr Musk’s takeover.
Her extensive advertising background could help repair the damaged relationships between Twitter and advertisers that left the platform following Musk’s chaotic takeover since acquiring Twitter last year.
Mr Musk has been desperate to find ways for the platform to make money to pay off a mountain of debt, and at one point, said that bankruptcy is a possibility.
That is part of the reason why Twitter has rolled out a revamped $8 per month Blue subscription and started charging developers to use its API.
