New Twitter CEO confirmed to be ex-TV exec as Elon Musk steps down

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Twitter, will step down from his role in the next few weeks, and we’ve dived deep into his successor, Linda Yaccarino.

After purchasing Twitter for an estimated $44 billion last November, Elon Musk’s reign as CEO of the company is coming to an end. However, the tycoon won’t be stepping away entirely from the company as he moves into a more technology-focused role as CTO and Executive Chairman.

Who is Linda Yaccarino?

Musk’s replacement will be Linda Yaccarino, the head of NBCUniversal’s advertising and partnerships. Her time at NBCUniversal has seen her manage campaigns that have brought in over $100 million in sales. On top of this, she seems adept and well-versed with social media sites, having worked with a variety of them in the past.

Yaccarino has also worked with both the Trump and Biden administrations and the World Economic Forum as Chairman of the Taskforce on the Future of Work. Musk has been critical of the WEF previously.

She has also wasted no time alluding to her plans for Twitter, tweeting out about the quality of live streams for the Paris Olympics next year.

However, Musk doesn’t plan to leave the company. While the new CEO will control the day-to-day operations of the company, Musk will still oversee the “product, software & sysops” side of things.

Musk’s reign at Twitter draws to a close

Musk’s time at Twitter has been tumultuous at best. Twitter has been subject to a lot of cuts, with the estimated headcount down to around 1300 as of January of this year.

He has also introduced Twitter Blue and removed verification from legacy users. This verification subscription has been abused by malevolent users to imitate brands.

Twitter Blue has also failed to make much of an impact, with rough estimates putting it at about a quarter of a million users.

Another estimate relates to the amount of legacy verified users who are now subscribed to Twitter Blue. Previously, 420,000 celebrities and people were verified, and of those, 6,482 appear to be paying to continue the benefits.

It was also revealed that Musk is paying outright for certain Twitter Blue users. Twitter has also recently fallen behind in paying rent in 2023.

Musk also got himself into serious trouble when it was revealed Twitter hadn’t paid a disabled staffer – then mocked him – who owned a company Twitter bought out. The contract specified that instead of a lump sum, it’d be paid out as a salary, with any breaks in the contract resulting in a $100 million payout.

Recent additions to Twitter, like encrypted direct messages have been locked behind a paywall. A new 30-day limit on inactive accounts being wiped has come in much quicker than expected. On top of this, Twitter plans to integrate voice calling into the app at some point in the future.

Glass cliff concerns

Heidi Moore, an ex-journalist for a range of outlets has pointed out this fits within the “glass cliff” method of high-end “clean-up” operations at companies.

Essentially, this task is so impossible that it makes for an easy scapegoat for things getting worse as the platform degrades over time.

Harvard Business Review has found in a study that 69% of companies will choose a woman to attempt to clear the mess made. In another experiment, 63% of people chose a woman to lead a company in crisis, while 67% chose a man to lead a successful one.