“I am excited to announce that I have appointed a new CEO of Twitter. Starting in about six weeks.”
This is what Elon Musk wrote in a message on Twitter Thursday evening, Norwegian time.
He did not confirm who this person was. according to The Wall Street Journal Linda Iaccarino is “in talks” with Twitter. She was responsible for advertising and collaboration with partners at NBC Universal, for which she was responsible for contracts worth $13 billion annually.
She is known as her tough negotiating partner, according to the business newspaper. Media buyers described it as the “Velvet Hammer”.
Yaccarino interviewed Elon Musk at a conference in Miami in April, where she pressed him hard about the many tricks he’d come up with on Twitter.
– She’s tough as steel and has always wanted this job. It’s perfect, adds a former colleague the edge.
She has worked at NBC Universal since 2011. The company is owned by Comcast. She will lead an annual meetup with advertisers and partners next Monday, when NBC will also present the broadcast schedule for the fall season with new series planned.
Several thousand more than needed
Musk also said he will move to the position of Chairman and CTO (Chief Technical Officer) where he will continue to be involved in product and software development.
By the way, Tesla’s share made a move just before closing time on Wall Street, which is a clear indication that the market estimates that Musk will no longer run the two companies.
Musk has, as you may know, been CEO of the social media company since he completed the purchase last fall. He has made a number of cost cuts in the company and has stated several times that he thinks the expenses are too high. Among the measures, there were several thousand layoffs.
While working to shape the company from his perspective, Musk has been generous in sharing developments on his own Twitter account, which he has largely used as a sort of press release hub.
Of the other changes that have occurred on the platform since Musk took over, the controversial blue ticks in user profiles are perhaps among the most talked about. Where it was previously reserved for prominent people in the community and served as a kind of user verification, Musk changed it to a subscription service where anyone could pay to get a blue tick on their profile.
During Musk’s tenure as president, an increase in hate speech on the platform was reported, prompting several advertisers to opt out. Musk also allowed several users that Twitter had banned at the time, including Donald Trump, to return.
The eccentric billionaire has also waged war against the many “bots” on the platform, which was a major theme in the run-up to the deal’s completion, when Musk first pulled out of buying the platform.
Musk has also been criticized for silencing journalists and got caught up in a storm around Christmas when he closed the famous account following his private jets. It was then presented to GDPR considerations, among others.
The vote has been taken
In addition to tearing down key parts of Twitter, Musk also didn’t shy away from expressing the difficult task he had to lead the company. In numerous Twitter messages in recent months, the billionaire has complained about everything from an image of an out-of-control cost to claims that Twitter was on the brink of bankruptcy. He described the president’s work as a position that “no one wants.”
In December of last year, he conducted a survey in which the question was: “Should I step down from my position as head of Twitter,” after which he promised to do what was stated in the survey.
By the time he finished, nearly 60 percent of the 17.5 million people who voted voted that he should step down.
Video of the billionaire entering the company’s headquarters at the end of October. With a washbasin in his arms, it marked the beginning of some very turbulent months. It didn’t take more than two days after the official takeover before it became clear that large portions of senior management had been fired. Several thousand employees in primary and secondary roles left the company in the name of “saving costs”.
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