Elon Musk seems to have appointed a new Twitter boss
Just a few hours back, billionaire Elon Musk took to Twitter, which he bought last October for $44 billion, announcing he had found a new chief executive to lead the social media platform.
Although the Tesla CEO didn’t name the new boss, he said “she” would start in roughly six weeks, at which point his role would transition to being executive chairman and chief technology officer.
Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 11, 2023
My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.
Musk had been under pressure to find a new boss to lead the site and focus on his other businesses instead. Last year, after Twitter users in an online poll started by him voted for the billionaire to step down, he said: “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive.”
Although Musk had said he would transfer the controls, it wasn’t actually clear when or even if the transition would happen.
Nevertheless, following the May 12 announcement, Tesla shares started rising. The billionaire was previously accused by shareholders of abandoning the car company and damaging the brand following his takeover of Twitter.
Dan Ives from the investment firm Wedbush Securities said it was an impossible task to try to balance Twitter, Tesla, and SpaceX as CEOs, adding Musk was “finally reading the room”.
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According to US media reports, NBCUniversal’s head of advertising Linda Yaccarino was in talks to become the new boss. Variety and the Wall Street Journal quoted individuals familiar with the matter. However, Twitter hasn’t commented on the reports.
But if the Tesla CEO has actually appointed a female chief executive for the platform, it would make the person get counted among a handful of women reaching the top spot of a major tech firm.
When it came to technology companies included in America’s 500 biggest firms last year, women accounted for lesser than 10% of chief executives.
Although Musk has dropped hints on paid subscribers for Twitter Blue, it is advertising that accounts for the platform’s vast majority of revenue. The new chief executive is expected to try to improve relationships with advertisers.
“She” is also likely to try to smooth the advertisers’ concerns over content moderation. Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist, has often said he took over Twitter to protect free speech. But advertisers aren’t interested to have their ads next to misinformation and extremist content.
Following the takeover in October, the billionaire controversially laid off thousands of employees in an effort to cut costs at the company, which has been struggling to remain profitable. But in March this year, Musk said those efforts had helped and Twitter’s finances were improving.
And just last month, he told the BBC News Agency that most of the advertisers that had chosen to abandon the platform immediately after the takeover had started to return.
