Elon Musk names Linda Yaccarino new Twitter CEO
Elon musk has named Linda Yaccarino as the new Twitter CEO, after his takeover of the social media company.
Elon Musk bought the platform last year for $44bn, now names a new CEO after the company is struggling to make money. But he will still remain involved as Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the company. This decision will allow him to focus on his other companies, which include electric carmaker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX.
Technology entrepreneur said, he will focus on product design and new technology, while Linda Yaccarino would oversee business operations of the company, and she would start in six weeks.
“Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app,” he wrote on Twitter.
Who is Linda Yaccarino?
Ms Yaccarino was raised in an Italian American family, with a police officer father and a mother who never went to college.
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 will face the challenge of running a business that has struggled to be profitable.
Expanding site’s functionality
When Musk first started discussing his plans for Twitter last year, he said he wanted to reduce the platform’s reliance on advertising and make changes to the way content is moderated. He also wanted to expand the site’s functions to include payments, encrypted messaging and phone calls, turning it into something he called X.
But Musk courted controversy when he fired thousands of staff after his takeover.
He completely changed the way the social media service authenticates accounts, charging for blue ticks, which critics said would facilitate the spread of misinformation.
Some of the changes raised concerns among advertisers, worried about risks to their brands, who subsequently halted spending on the site. Musk acknowledged “massive” declines in revenue, but recently told that companies were returning.
Only time will tell how his decision will impact Twitter in the long run. We will also see how successful Linda is into transforming Twitter into an all-encompassing app X.