Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has announced that he has found a new chief executive for Twitter, according to a tweet posted on Thursday.
However, he did not disclose the name of the person. The Wall Street Journal reported that Linda Yaccarino, an executive at Comcast NBCUniversal, is in talks for the job.
In his tweet, Musk said, “Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!” He also stated that he would transition to the role of chief technology officer of the social media platform within the next few weeks.
Musk had taken over as CEO of Twitter when he completed his $44 billion purchase of the company in October. However, he had stated in December that he would step aside as CEO once he found “someone foolish enough to take the job.” He said that he would then run Twitter’s software and servers teams.
According to Reuters, Yaccarino could be Musk’s choice to lead Twitter, based on sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. Yaccarino is currently the top advertising sales executive at NBCUniversal. She interviewed Musk at an advertising conference in Miami last month and praised his work ethic.
Yaccarino did not respond to calls seeking comment on Thursday. An NBCUniversal spokesperson said, “Linda is in back-to-back rehearsals for the Upfront,” referring to a presentation NBCUniversal will host for advertisers in New York on Monday.
Musk’s announcement came 15 minutes before the close of Wall Street on Thursday, and Tesla shares closed 2% higher. The shares rose a further 1.6% in after-hours trade.
“The boat anchor called Twitter is loosened from Musk’s ankle. Now he can get back to spending more time creating value at Tesla,” said Craig Irwin, analyst at Roth MKM.
Musk had long said he intended to find a new leader for Twitter. In a Twitter poll started by Musk in December, 57.5% users voted for him to step down as CEO of the social media platform.
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