Elon Musk polled Twitter users in December if he should step down from his current position as CEO of Twitter. He promised to abide by the results of the poll, and 57.5% of those who responded said yes, he should step down. Those yay-sayers are getting their wish. Elon Musk revealed that he had found someone to replace him as CEO: Linda Yaccarino.

Yaccarino comes from a long career in the advertising industry, AP shared. She previously worked for NBCUniversal as chairwoman for global advertising and partnerships. Just before the announcement, she stepped down from her position. Linda Yaccarino had previously been with NBCUniversal for 12 years where she played a large part in launching Peacock, Ars Technica reported. Before her stint at NBCUniversal, she was the executive vice president and COO of advertising sales, marketing, and acquisitions at Turner Broadcasting.

Musk shared the news of the new CEO in a tweet:

Musk previously tweeted that he would resign from the CEO position at the social media company once he found someone “foolish enough to take the job.”

“I’ve long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future. I’m excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!” Yaccarino tweeted in excitement of the new position. She shared that she was eager to receive feedback for the platform and wanted to build Twitter 2.0 with users of the platform, Deadline said.

Many are speculating that Yaccarino could help generate ad revenue for Twitter. With 625 of their 1,000 top advertisers no longer spending on ads as of January 2023, the social media platform needs to make some of their money back and Yaccarino might be the right person for the job.

On top of launching Peacock, Yaccarino has a star-studded portfolio. She has helped collaborate with large brands and product placement, and built working relationships with Apple News, Snapchat and more, according to BBC. She could help Musk get some return on his $44 billion investment.

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To regain some of the revenue that Musk has hemorrhaged, Linda Yaccarino has quite a hill to climb. She will have to rebuild and enrich relationships with advertisers, and figure out how to navigate all of Twitter’s recent policy changes. However, if anyone could do it, Yaccarino may likely be the best bet. During her time at NBCUniversal, her team generated $100 billion in ad sales since 2011, according to CNN.

Why now? Musk may have realized he was losing out on a large amount of ad revenue, and needed to take some time to collect his thoughts as well as earn his money back. As much as he may not want the site to have to depend on ad revenue, it is going to have to make money somewhere.

In February, at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Musk said, “I need to stabilize the organization and just make sure it’s in a financially healthy place and the product road map is clearly laid out.”

Insider Take

Is this Musk’s way of admitting defeat, or is he just focused on returning his investment to profitability? According to Mashable, in 2021, 90% of Twitter’s revenue came from advertising –  $4.5 billion out of $5 billion. Musk told potential investors that he wanted advertising to only account for 45% of total revenue with the balance coming from subscriptions. Unfortunately, Twitter Blue is not as popular as Musk had hoped, and advertisers continue to bail on the social media platform. If Musk gives Linda Yaccarino the freedom and latitude to make changes, she might be the answer to Twitter’s prayers. It will take time to undo the damage Musk has single-handedly done since October 2022, but Yaccarino seems to have the right experience, background and relationships to give it a go.

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