Longtime NBCUniversal advert gross sales chief Linda Yaccarino is in talks to depart the corporate and succeed Elon Musk as Twitter’s CEO, in line with a supply acquainted with the matter.
Earlier on Thursday, Musk—who purchased the social media platform final October and two months later vowed to step down as Twitter CEO when he discovered “somebody silly sufficient to take the job”—indicated that he had settled on a substitute.
He tweeted, “Excited to announce that I’ve employed a brand new CEO for X/Twitter. She will likely be beginning in ~6 weeks! My position will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software program & sysops.”
The Wall Avenue Journal first reported that Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s chairman of worldwide promoting and partnerships, was in talks for the Twitter CEO position.
The information comes simply days earlier than Yaccarino and NBCUniversal are set to kick off upfront week, holding their conventional Monday morning presentation at Radio Metropolis Music Corridor.
NBCUniversal and Twitter didn’t share any extra particulars about Yaccarino’s new place. “Linda is in again to again rehearsals for Monday’s upfront,” mentioned Joe Benarroch, evp, international communications, NBCU. As standard, Adweek’s inquiry to Twitter’s press division—which Musk disbanded—acquired an auto-reply containing a poop emoji.
Yaccarino has been a public advocate for Musk’s possession of Twitter because the billionaire purchased the platform in October. The duo appeared onstage collectively in April throughout the inaugural Potential advertising occasion in Miami for a keynote round “Twitter 2.0.”
NBCUniversal has additionally expanded its Twitter partnership underneath Musk. Twitter didn’t placed on an official NewFronts promoting occasion this 12 months, because it has in previous years. However the firm held a smaller presentation throughout the week for purchasers, and introduced expanded Olympics and Paralympics partnerships with NBCUniversal across the 2024 Paris Summer season Video games.
Yaccarino has lengthy been one in every of promoting’s most dynamic forces. She joined NBCUniversal in 2011 after spending 20 years at Turner. Initially, she was in control of cable and digital gross sales, however inside two years was elevated to go up all of the cable and broadcast networks underneath a single portfolio—a then-revolutionary shake-up that was finally adopted by virtually all of her rivals.
