Musk picks ad exec Linda Yaccarino as Twitter CEO
Elon Musk has chosen ad executive Linda Yaccarino to take the day-to-day reins of Twitter as he fights to reverse the tide at the struggling platform he bought for US$44 billion last year. Yaccarino stepped down from NBC Universal "effectively immediately" on Friday as rumors swirled that she would replace the mercurial tycoon as Twitter CEO. Twitter is struggling to find its footing after Musk's controversial takeover that saw him fire thousands of staff and welcome back far-right and controversial figures on the platform, spooking away its highest-paying advertisers. Musk on Thursday teased Yaccarino's hiring saying in a tweet that he had hired a woman to replace him as boss of Twitter and its newly named X Corporation parent, but without revealing the name. Yaccarino's departure from the company that owns NBC, Universal and Telemundo – where she has been since 2011 – came a few weeks after she interviewed Musk at a marketing conference in Miami. Asked by Yaccarino at the time how it's been going since the acquisition, Musk replied: "It's going well...It's entertaining....It's a trainwreck sometimes." Yaccarino is one of the advertising industry's most respected executives, but will face an uphill battle trying to attract major companies to come back to the platform. In a tweet, Musk said he would remain in charge of design and technology at Twitter, with Yaccarino focusing primarily on business operations and turning Twitter into an "everything app" called X. (AFP)