Linda Yaccarino formally joins Twitter as CEO
Technology
Says 'I'm excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together'
(Web Desk/Reuters) - Linda Yaccarino, former NBCUniversal executive, has taken charge as the Twitter's new CEO as she has updated bio on her LinkedIn profile.
Previously with NBCUniversal as head of advertising, Ms Yaccarino had earlier said that she has been inspired by owner Elon Musk's vision to create a brighter future and is excited to help to transform the social media platform.
"I've long been inspired by [Musk's] vision to create a brighter future. I'm excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!" Yaccarino tweeted.
In May, Mr Musk named former NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino as Twitter's new CEO, as the company tries to reverse a plunge in ad revenue.
Yaccarino has joined the social media platform beset with challenges and a heavy debt load, after she spent several years modernizing the advertising business at NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O).
Since Musk acquired Twitter in October, advertisers have fled the social media platform, worried that their ads could appear next to inappropriate content after the company lost nearly 80% of staff. Musk earlier this year acknowledged that Twitter suffered a massive decline in ad revenue.
Twitter's "trajectory will immediately take a 180-degree turn" under her leadership, said Lou Paskalis, a longtime ad industry executive and CEO of AJL Advisory, a marketing consultancy.
"I think (Yaccarino) has climbed every mountain she could at NBCU and did it impeccably well. And there's no greater challenge than restoring order at Twitter," he said.
While Musk said Yaccarino would help build an "everything app," which he has previously said could offer a variety of services such as peer-to-peer payments, his selection of an advertising veteran signaled that digital ads would continue to be a core focus of the business.
Musk has axed thousands of Twitter employees, rushed the launch of a subscription product that allowed scammers to impersonate major brands and suspended users with whom he disagreed, all of which have spooked brands from spending on the platform.
In order to diversify away from ads, the billionaire has focused on Twitter Blue, a subscription feature that costs users $8 per month to verify their accounts, but the product has had limited success.
