From dealing with Musk to fixing Twitter Blue: what’s in the next CEO’s in-tray?
Elon Musk has described it as a “painful” job that anyone would be “foolish” to accept. But Twitter’s current chief executive says he has found a willing person to take his place.
Musk announced on Thursday that his time as Twitter CEO is almost over and he has appointed a replacement who will start in about six weeks. According to the Wall Street Journal, he is in talks with the head of global advertising at NBCUniversal, Linda Yaccarino, about succeeding him.
In an interview with Yaccarino at a conference last month, Musk said that people should take his tweets with a “grain of salt” – so it is worth waiting for official confirmation of the news from either side. If a new chief executive is indeed imminent, here are the biggest items awaiting that person in their in-tray:
Musk is not going away. He owns Twitter and has put a considerable amount of money, as well as reputational capital, into a business he bought for $44bn last October. He also confirmed on Thursday that he will become executive chair at Twitter and will have responsibility for a number of areas including the platform’s IT infrastructure. Investors in Tesla, where Musk remains chief executive, want him to spend more time at the electric car business but he has made clear that Twitter will still command a significant degree of his attention.
Yaccarino has been described by the WSJ as a “hard-nosed” negotiator as well as a “velvet hammer”. If she is appointed, building a working relationship with Musk will test those people management skills.
Twitter needs a chief executive who can command respect with advertisers, so the emergence of a candidate with a background in the field makes sense. Advertising accounted for more than 90% of Twitter’s $5.1bn revenue in
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