Elon Musk is no longer the CEO of Twitter, his replacement is Linda Yaccarino

Musk said in November that he hoped to reduce his time at Twitter and eventually find a new leader to run the social media company.

“My role will transition to Executive Chairman and CTO (Chief Technology Officer), overseeing products, software, and sysops,” the mogul said in a tweet.

The new CEO will start her job in about six weeks, Elon Musk wrote on Twitter.

Linda Yaccarino, the new CEO of Twitter

Linda Yaccarinothe top ad sales executive for Comcast’s NBCUniversal, is Musk’s pick to lead the social media company, said a Silicon Valley executive and a former Hollywood executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity to comment on the speculation.

When asked for comment, an NBCUniversal spokesperson said “Linda is in one rehearsal after another for the Upfront,” referring to a presentation NBCUniversal will give to advertisers in New York on Monday.

However, in a tweet, Elon Musk himself confirmed his choice in the executive who has succeeded in the field of advertising. He welcomed her and announced that they will work together to transform Twitter into X, the everything app.

Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was suggested in conversations among Twitter workers on Thursday, according to an employee.

Susan Wojcicki, former YouTube CEO, and Shivon Zilis, a senior executive at Neuralink, Musk’s brain chip startup, were also among the names Twitter employees were considering in Blind, according to a former worker who saw the comments.

Senior executives from other Musk companies, such as SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell and Tesla Inc TSLA.O president Robyn Denholm, could also be named, according to Jason Benowitz, a senior portfolio manager at CI Roosevelt.

Musk said he will move into the role of Twitter’s top executive, along with CTO, where he would oversee product, software and sysops.

Tesla shares were up 2.1% on Thursday and analysts said the announcement helped ease some investor concerns about Musk’s active involvement on Twitter.

“Now you can go back to spending more time creating value at Tesla,” said Craig Irwin, an analyst at Roth MKM.

One step back

Musk has long stated his intention to find a new leader for Twitter. In a poll Musk initiated on his account in December, 57.5% of users voted for him to step down as chief executive of the social media platform.

The billionaire’s first two weeks as the new owner of Twitter in October were marked by rapid change. He immediately fired the company’s previous CEO, Parag Agrawal, and other senior leaders and then half of the staff in November.

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 vowed he would “defeat” spam bots on Twitter, a key area of ​​his fight with the company’s board of directors over his back-and-forth purchase of the company for $54 billion.

On the other hand, the move is likely to allay the doubts of Tesla investors, who are increasingly worried about the time Musk spends turning Twitter around. Tesla shares rose 2.4% on the news.

With information from Reuters