"I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk wrote in a tweet last week. He added that Yaccarino"will focus primarily on business operations" while Musk will stay closely connected to product design and new technology.
Mark DiMassimo, founder and creative chief of ad agency DiGo, said Yaccarino successfully integrated and digitised ad sales at Comcast and NBC - and that her track record of cross-selling ads across different platforms could appeal to Musk as he tries to transform Twitter from a social media company to a bigger media platform.
Last month, Yaccarino interviewed Musk on a Miami stage last month in front of hundreds of advertisers. Musk’s tenure at Twitter’s helm has been chaotic. He began his first day firing the company’s top executives, followed by roughly 80% of its staff, which has meant that Twitter has far fewer engineers to ensure that the site is running smoothly and far fewer content moderators to help rid it of hate speech, animal cruelty and graphic violence.
Musk's policy changes have led to divisions among users, some who have left the platform. There was more of that on Friday, but from some of Musk's most boisterous supporters. Last November, Musk was questioned in court about how he splits his time among Tesla and his other companies, including SpaceX and Twitter. Musk had to testify in the trial in Delaware’s Court of Chancery over a shareholder’s challenge to his potentially US$55bil compensation plan as CEO of the electric car company.