Linda Yaccarino takes over as new Twitter CEO, hires former NBCUniversal executive

Linda Yaccarino, former Chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships at NBC Universal, has officially taken over as Twitter's new CEO. This comes as Elon Musk, who briefly served as Twitter's CEO, focuses his attention on his other ventures, Tesla and SpaceX.

Linda Yaccarino will be taking over as Twitter's new CEO from today as Elon Musk aims to focus more on Tesla and SpaceX, the media reported. For Musk, he will have more time to devote to Space X and Tesla, two of his other businesses. Even though he won't be Twitter's CEO, Musk had earlier stated in a tweet that his "role will transition to being exec chair and CTO, overseeing product, software, and sysops."

Yaccarino, who earlier worked at NBC, has also hired her trusted advisor Joe Benarroch to build Elon Musk's 'Twitter 2.0'. Benarroch expressed his excitement about contributing his skills to Twitter and collaborating with the group to develop Musk's Twitter 2.0 in a LinkedIn post. "I am looking forward to bringing my experience to Twitter, and to working with the entire team to build Twitter 2.0 together."

Yaccarino also welcomed her former NBC colleague to Twitter via a tweet.

Yaccarino said last month that she is ready to work with Musk and the platform's millions of users to construct Twitter 2.0 and revamp the company. "I've long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future. I'm excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together," she posted on Twitter.

Yaccarino will take over a social media platform that has been trying to reverse a plunge in ad revenue and is beset with challenges, along with a heavy debt load. Since Musk acquired Twitter, advertisers have fled the platform, worried that their ads could appear next to inappropriate content after the company lost nearly 80% of staff.