In a tweet on Thursday, Musk said the company's new CEO will
start in about six weeks, without naming the individual. Yaccarino, who is
chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal Media, didn't
respond to an email seeking comment, and a representative for NBCUniversal said
she was in rehearsals for the company's upfront presentation to advertisers
next week.
Yaccarino joined NBCUniversal in 2011 after nearly two
decades at Turner Broadcasting. At NBCUniversal, she helped launch the ad-supported
streaming service Peacock and oversaw live events like the Super Bowl and
Olympic Games. Yaccarino also led partnerships with a variety of tech companies
including Snapchat, YouTube, and, of course, Twitter.
If Yaccarino is the one Musk chose, his tweet came at an
awkward time for the executive. NBCUniversal is scheduled to give its annual
presentation to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Monday. The
upfront events, which span the week, are when major media companies begin
selling advertising for the fall TV season.
This year's presentations were already challenged by a
screenwriters' strike that could result in major delays in TV production and
schedules. NBCUniversal's event is expected to focus heavily on online
advertising, as the company further promotes its lineup of movies and TV shows
on Peacock.
NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, was rocked just last
month by the firing of its chief executive officer, Jeff Shell, over a sexual
harassment complaint leveled by an employee.
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October and
indicated that he'd only be in charge for a limited time to complete the
organizational overhaul he thought the company needed to prosper. Musk
complained of having “too much work” and sleeping at Twitter's San Francisco
headquarters while implementing radical changes.
In December, Musk asked his Twitter followers if he should
step down as CEO and 57.5 percent said yes. The billionaire will remain
executive chairman after the transition.
Musk, who's also CEO of Tesla and Space Exploration
Technologies Corp., has drawn criticism for his abrupt policy changes at
Twitter and neglect of his other businesses.
He's also changed the corporate name of Twitter's parent to
X Holdings, an entity that could eventually be the parent for all his
businesses — an idea he has publicly mused about. Musk has also said he wants
to build Twitter beyond social media and into an “everything app,” including
financial services.
The next CEO will have to deal with the fallout from his
ownership, including an advertiser exodus. Despite a slight uptick in daily
users since early 2022, Twitter's revenue has fallen by 50 percent since
October as a result of a “massive decline” in advertising, Musk said in March.
The company's Twitter Blue subscription service plan has
also been flailing, drawing less than 1 percent of the user base. Musk has cut
thousands of jobs, scaled back the company's content moderation, and allowed
accounts previously banned for breaking rules to return.
Musk already has a friendly relationship with Yaccarino, who
interviewed him last month at a major advertising conference in Miami and
called him “friend” and “buddy” on stage. Recently, Twitter and NBCU expanded
their Olympic Games partnership.
“I can say that she would be my first choice, and my only
choice, to save the platform from the hands of its owner,” said Lou Paskalis,
who advises marketers as chief strategy officer at Ad Fontes Media, on Twitter.
“I still cannot understand why she'd subject herself to @elonmusk, however!”
Puck News' Dylan Byers also reported via a tweet that Musk
planned to name Yaccarino as Twitter's CEO, citing two people familiar with the
matter. © Bloomberg
0 comments:
Post a Comment