Elon Musk announces Linda Yaccarino as new Twitter CEO

NBCUniversal announced that she left as head of advertising on Friday

Elon Musk on Friday announced that NBCUniversal's former head of advertising Linda Yaccarino has been named Twitter's new chief executive.

"I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!" Mr Musk tweeted on Friday.

Mr Musk said Ms Yaccarino will focus on business operations while he spends more time on product design and new technology.

Ms Yaccarino left her position at NBCUniversal prior to Mr Musk's announcement.

“It has been an absolute honour to be part of Comcast NBCUniversal and lead the most incredible team,” said Ms Yaccarino, who joined NBCUniversal in 2011.

Her departure follows a tweet from Elon Musk on Thursday in which he said he had found someone to head the social media company.

Several outlets including The Wall Street Journal reported that Ms Yaccarino, previously chairwoman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, was in talks for the role.

The announcement comes nearly six months after a Twitter poll ended with a majority of users wanting him to leave the role.

“Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter,” Mr Musk said in his tweet.

The new chief executive will start in about six weeks, he added.

He did not disclose the identity of the new chief executive but referred to the new job holder as “she”.

Mr Musk also said he would transition to overseeing product, software and systems operations as executive chairman and chief technology officer.

Last month, he announced that Twitter would merge with a new company called X Corp.

After completing his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in October, Mr Musk, who also owns Tesla, made a series of changes in a turbulent time for the company.

Within the first two weeks, he laid off half of the company's staff and fired former chief executive Parag Agrawal, as well as other senior leaders in the company.

The billionaire businessman had previously complained of working too-long hours as head of Twitter and his other companies.

His ownership of the social media platform has also been criticised over changes including paid subscriptions for verification status, a “For You” newsfeed and the reinstatement of controversial accounts such as that of former US president Donald Trump.

Earlier this week, Mr Musk said Twitter would soon offer voice and video calls that would probably challenge rival platforms WhatsApp and Instagram.

Tesla shares dropped were down 1.13 per cent at noon on Friday.