Musk Taking Heat for Twitter CEO Choice

Twitter’s billionaire proprietor Elon Musk is taking some warmth for naming NBCUniversal Media LLC promoting head Linda Yaccarino as the brand new CEO for the social media large.

Business Insider reported Friday that even followers of Musk criticized him for the selection of Yaccarino, who additionally chairs a committee for the World Financial Discussion board (WEF).

These on the left took situation together with her connection to former President Donald Trump by being appointed as a member of his presidential council on sports activities and health, in addition to following Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the report stated.

These on the fitting expressed considerations together with her connections to the “woke” agenda of the WEF, which meets every year in Davos, Switzerland, attended by the wealthiest and most influential individuals on the earth, a lot of which assist controversial options to points like local weather change, the report stated.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she “is the Chairman of the WEF’s Taskforce on Way forward for Work and sits on the WEF’s Media, Leisure and Tradition Trade Governors Steering Committee.”

The New York Times reported that NBCUniversal introduced her instant departure Friday a number of hours earlier than Musk introduced her appointment.

“I’m excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the brand new CEO of Twitter,” Musk said in a tweet Friday. “[She] will focus totally on enterprise operations, whereas I give attention to product design and new expertise. Wanting ahead to working with Linda to rework this platform into X, the every little thing app.”

Musk additionally stated that Yaccarino will begin her new place in six weeks.

In response to the Occasions report, Yaccarino’s appointment alerts Musk’s precedence of promoting within the new Twitter 2.0, due to her prowess as a Madison Avenue energy dealer.

“Linda’s a power,” Joe Marchese, the previous head of advert gross sales on the Fox Networks Group, who has recognized Yaccarino for at the very least a decade, advised the publication. “She has one of many greatest jobs in promoting, and the advert market is as onerous because it’s ever been.”

Twitter has been plagued with a drop in promoting income attributable to Musk’s takeover within the fall of 2022 when he purchased the corporate for $44 billion and stated he needed to restore free speech on the platform.

The drop in income led Musk to eradicate round 75% of the corporate’s workforce whereas struggling to pay a few of its $13 billion debt from the sale.

Even mates of the promoting powerhouse questioned her resolution to work with Musk.

“Along with her stature within the trade as in all probability one of the vital beloved and trusted individuals on the income aspect, I query why she would topic herself to that sort of potential reputational danger,” Lou Paskalis, a longtime advert government and pal of Yaccarino, advised the Occasions.