NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino Is in Talks to Become Twitter CEO

Elon Musk hasn’t revealed his female replacement’s identity, only divulging she will start in six weeks time, with rumours TV ad-sales chief in talks for the role.

Twitter owner Elon Musk said his role will shift to executive chairman and chief technology officer. Picture: AFP

NBCUniversal’s head of advertising Linda Yaccarino is in talks to become the new CEO of Twitter, according to people familiar with the situation.

Ms Yaccarino, chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCU, has been with NBCU for more than a decade, where she has been an industry advocate for finding better ways to measure the effectiveness of advertising. As head of NBCU’s advertising sales, she was key in the launch of the company’s ad-supported Peacock streaming service.

Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, said in a tweet Thursday that he had hired a new CEO, but didn’t say who it was. “She will be starting in 6 weeks!” Mr. Musk said in the tweet.

His announcement came days before one of the biggest events of the year for NBCU, the company’s annual pitch event for advertisers, known as the upfront, which is scheduled for Monday in New York.

Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!

My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2023

An NBCU spokesman said Ms. Yaccarino is in back-to-back rehearsals for NBCU’s upfront.

After Mr. Musk’s takeover of Twitter last year, many advertisers paused their spending out of concern that he might weaken content moderation, or because of the uncertainty surrounding the company’s direction under its new leadership. Some companies say they have resumed spending on Twitter, though others say have kept in place a pause on spending on the platform.

Of the top 100 advertisers on Twitter before Mr. Musk bought the company, 37 spent nothing on Twitter advertising during the first quarter of this year, according to market-intelligence firm Sensor Tower, while an additional 24 brands reduced their average monthly Twitter ad spending by 80% or more.

Ms Yaccarino, who oversees roughly $13 billion in annual ad revenue, is well-known for her tight relationship with marketers and ad agencies. Ms Yaccarino has a reputation for hard-nosed negotiating tactics, and media buyers have described her as the “velvet hammer.” Mr. Musk, who has been CEO since buying the company in October, said his role will shift to executive chairman and chief technology officer. But Mr. Musk also made clear he wasn’t about to yield control over the platform, saying he would maintain responsibility for product, software and system operations.

Linda Yaccarino is chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCU and has a reputation for hard-nosed negotiating tactics. Picture: Getty

Twitter didn’t comment.

The talks come at a particularly delicate time for NBCU. The media company, along with rivals such as Walt Disney’s ABC, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery are expected to make their annual presentations to Madison Avenue next week, as TV’s advanced ad-selling season gets under way.

NBCU’s presentation, in which Ms. Yaccarino is expected to play a role, is set to take place at Radio City Music Hall on Monday. Media companies will be trying to convince brands to commit to buying billions of dollars in commercial time for the upcoming season.

After closing his $44 billion deal for Twitter, Mr. Musk fired several of the company’s top leaders, including CEO Parag Agrawal, the general counsel and the CFO.

In just over six months, Mr. Musk has worked to rapidly overhaul the social-media platform, conducting broad lay-offs and rolling out product and content-moderation changes in quick succession, including changing the verification system to make it part of an upgraded subscription service.

In November, the billionaire, who also is CEO of Tesla, said he had ” too much work” on his plate after the Twitter takeover. The next month, Mr. Musk floated the idea of naming someone to take over day-to-day management of the social-media platform. In a 12-hour poll he posted on Twitter in December, a majority of respondents said he should step down as CEO.

In February, he had said he was likely to appoint a new CEO toward the end of the year.

Mr. Musk has made jokes about who would run Twitter if he were to leave -- including saying he would resign as soon he found ” someone foolish enough to take the job.” In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. last month, he said he was no longer CEO and that his dog, Floki, technically held that position. He said at the time he had no one in mind to take over as Twitter boss.

Mr. Musk has said that he doesn’t like being the boss of anyone, and doesn’t want to be a manager. In a 2021 trial in Wilmington, Del., he said he didn’t enjoy being the CEO of Tesla.

“I rather hate it, and I would much prefer to spend my time on design and engineering, which is what intrinsically I like doing,” he said.

Write to Jessica Toonkel at [e-mail], Suzanne Vranica at [e-mail] and Alexa Corse at [e-mail]

Wall Street Journal