Elon Musk says he has found new Twitter CEO

NEW YORK — Mr Elon Musk said on Thursday (May 11) he has found a new chief executive for Twitter without naming the person and that he will transition to the role of chief technology officer of the social media platform within the next few weeks.

"Excited to announce that I've hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!," Mr Musk said in a tweet.

Mr Musk has previously not named any prospective candidates, and it was unclear who he had named as his successor, although speculation was rife among tech and media insiders and on Blind, an anonymous messaging app for tech employees.

Ms Linda Yaccarino, the top advertising sales executive at Comcast's NBCUniversal, could be Mr Musk's choice to lead the social media company, said a Silicon Valley executive and a former Hollywood executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the speculation.

Ms Yaccarino, a respected ad industry leader, interviewed Musk at an advertising conference in Miami last month.

When asked for comment, 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.

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was suggested in conversations between Twitter employees on Thursday, according to one staffer.

Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and a top executive at Mr Musk' brain-chip startup Neuralink, Shivon Zilis, were also among the names being discussed by Twitter employees on Blind, according to a former employee who viewed the comments.

Top female executives from Musk's other companies, such as SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell and Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm could also be named, according to Mr Jason Benowitz, senior portfolio manager at CI Roosevelt.

Mr Musk said he will transition to the role of Twitter's executive chair, along with the role of CTO, where he would oversee product, software & sysops.

Tesla shares closed 2.1 per cent higher on Thursday and analysts said the announcement helped alleviate some investor concerns around Mr Musk's active involvement at Twitter.

The electric-vehicle maker's shares had taken a hit after Mr Musk took over Twitter in October and investors had said the move could stretch the billionaire thin.

"The boat anchor called Twitter is loosened from Musk's ankle. Now he can get back to spending more time creating value at Tesla," Mr Craig Irwin, analyst at Roth MKM, said.

STEPPING DOWN

Mr Musk has long said he intended to find a new leader for Twitter.

In a Twitter poll started by Mr Musk in December, 57.5 per cent users voted for him to step down as CEO of the social media platform.

"I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!" Mr Musk had said then.

The billionaire's first two weeks as the new Twitter owner in October were marked by rapid change. He quickly fired Twitter's previous CEO Parag Agrawal and other senior leaders and then laid off half its staff in November.

Mr Musk, a self-proclaimed free speech absolutist, has said he took over Twitter to prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division.

He also said he would "defeat" spam bots on the platform, a key area of his tussle with Twitter's board over his back and forth on the US$44 billion (S$59 billion) buyout of the company. REUTERS