Linda Yaccarino is the new Twitter CEO. She succeeded Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who focuses once again on Tesla.
The social media platform Twitter enters a new era as neo-CEO Linda Yaccarino fully enters the driver’s seat. She replaced former CEO and Twitter owner Elon Musk a week ago after Musk himself announced his departure last May.
Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, wreaking havoc on the platform with his widely controversial updates. In an effort to increase company revenues, he charged an $8 dollar fee for the celebrity blue verification checkmark.
His failure to include an actual verification system resulted in thousands of "fake celebrities" roaming around Twitter. In one case, the pharmaceutical company Eli & Lilly lost $15 billion in one day after their announcement of giving away insulin free of charge.
Obviously, the account was just a random Twitter user that paid the $8 fee to become the "verified" Eli & Lilly page. The real company had no intention of giving insulin for free.
Then, Elon Musk charged businesses for Twitter’s API, again in an effort to increase the company’s cash flow.
As Twitter CEO, however, Elon Musk took too much attention away from his other businesses, namely EV manufacturer Tesla. The electric car company lost a significant market share as Musk was applying disastrous changes to Twitter.
Tesla’s investors signaled their discontent many times, essentially forcing Musk to give up his position on the social network. Now, he will remain Twitter’s CTO (Chief Technical Officer) and executive chairman.
Another "free-speech absolutist"
The whole purpose of Musk’s taking over was, reportedly, his intention to make Twitter a free-space haven. In fact, as soon as he became CEO, he published a series of Twitter internal documents showcasing the platform’s preference for the Democratic agenda.
Musk says Twitter promoted Democratic ideas while purposely burying Republican points of view. Further, Musk believes this preference hampered the democratic process during the 2020 US elections.
New CEO Linda Yaccarino closely resembles Elon Musk in this regard.
In her words, Yaccarino wants to turn Twitter into a "global town square" in order to "drive civilisation forward through the unfiltered exchange of information and open dialogue about the things that matter most to us."
Contrary to Musk, Yaccarino already has experience in the communication sector. She was NBCUniversal’s advertising manager, driving the company through the launch of their streaming platform Peacock.
Markets trust Yaccarino. Wedbush Securities’ Daniel Ives said, "We believe Linda has a solid vision for Twitter with a lot of wood to chop that can be turned around."
But scrolling Elon Musk’s influence over the company will be a hard challenge to face. One that might bring even an experienced player like Linda Yaccarino to the ground.
