Elon Musk announced the new CEO of Twitter would be Linda Yaccarino, a successor that makes a lot of sense, but also comes with some baggage. We break it down.
Elon Musk announced Friday morning, on Twitter of course, that Linda Yaccarino will be the next CEO of the social media platform. For some people, including many of his followers, this wasn’t a total surprise, because a day earlier he announced he’d be stepping down and teased that his replacement, who he hadn’t yet named, was a “she.” Soon after, both media outlets and Twitter users had come to a consensus that it would be Yaccarino. Before Musk could even confirm her new role, it was already apparent that the new CEO was going to be a divisive choice.
This isn’t Twitter’s first controversial decision, especially since billionaire Elon Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last October. Musk has played a prominent role in Silicon Valley since co-founding PayPal in 2000, and is currently CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX. It’s been a nonstop contentious period for Twitter since Musk became its CEO and immediately began making drastic changes to make the company more profitable and align with his own personal values concerning free speech. These changes included laying off three-quarters of Twitter’s employees, including top executives, and creating a more intense work atmosphere where workers were expected to put in long hours.
In December 2022, Musk tweeted a poll asking users if he should step down as CEO, and said that he would “abide by the results.” After 57.5% of respondents voted “Yes,” Musk said he would resign “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” Five months later, Musk kept to his word with his announcement that Yaccarino would succeed him in six weeks. Musk will transition to Chief Technology Officer, where he will continue to oversee the company’s system ops, software, and products.
