Musk hires Linda Yaccarino as new chief after six tumultuous months at Twitter’s helm

Elon Musk has hired a senior US advertising executive to replace him as Twitter’s chief executive as he seeks to turn the social network into an “everything app”.

Linda Yaccarino will join the company from NBCUniversal, the American media giant behind the NBC TV network and Universal Studios, Mr Musk confirmed on Friday. 

It came a day after he revealed that he would step aside to become Twitter’s executive chairman and chief technology officer.

Mr Musk said Ms Yaccarino would be tasked with transforming Twitter into “X”, a so-called super app that would include payments, messaging and video subscriptions.

“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Mr Musk tweeted.

“[She]  will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.”

Last month, Mr Musk transferred Twitter’s corporate registration to a new entity called X Corp set up in Nevada. He has taken inspiration from the Chinese app WeChat, which is used for messaging, public social media, payments, shopping and gaming.

More immediately, Ms Yaccarino will be tasked with shoring up Twitter’s relationship with advertisers, some of whom have quit the service in recent months.

Twitter depended on advertising for almost all of its revenues before it was sold to Mr Musk for $44bn (£35bn) last year.

The Tesla billionaire has sought to boost revenues from subscriptions, charging users for verification and other features as well as letting users put some of their tweets behind a paywall.

Analysts at Insider Intelligence have forecast that Twitter’s advertising revenue will fall by 28pc this year, and by 2025 will have fallen 40pc from 2021 levels.

Jasmine Enberg at Insider Intelligence said: “A new CEO is the only way forward for Twitter. The single biggest problem with Twitter’s ad business was Elon Musk. As he steps back, Twitter can begin to unravel Musk’s personal brand from the company’s corporate image and attempt to regain trust among advertisers.”

The move will make Ms Yaccarino one of the most high-profile women in Silicon Valley.

Ms Yaccarino’s expected appointment generated a backlash from some corners of Twitter. 

Users claimed her work with the World Economic Forum, where she chairs a taskforce on the future of work, and the Biden administration, where she helped develop a pro-vaccination advertising campaign, would mean some of the service’s most controversial users getting banned.

Ms Yaccarino had also worked with the Trump administration, serving on a White House sports fitness and nutrition council.

Mr Musk said: “I think people from both sides of the political spectrum will find Linda to be smart, fair and reasonable.”

He also said he and Ms Yaccarino would host a live question and answer session on Twitter Spaces as soon as the new chief executive “is ready”.