NBCUniversal confirmed that sales chief Linda Yaccarino is leaving the company, amid reports that she will become Twitter’s new CEO, Deadline reports.
According to the report by Deadline, Mark Marshall, who is currently president of advertising sales and client partnerships, will become interim chairman of NBCU’s advertising and partnerships group. He will report to Mark Lazarus, the chairman of NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.
Comcast President Mike Cavanaugh said, “We are grateful for Linda Yaccarino’s leadership of NBCUniversal’s advertising sales business, and for the innovative team and platform she has built.”
Linda Yaccarino has been with the company for 12 years.
Elon Musk announced on Thursday that he was handing over the reins as CEO to an unnamed figure. That immediately ignited speculation as to his successor, and hours later The Wall Street Journal reported that Linda Yaccarino had been tapped for the job.
Linda Yaccarino, a 12-year veteran of NBCU and before that the networks formerly under the Turner banner, has won credibility in industry circles for her assertiveness and, when the situation warrants, pugnaciousness. She was an early and vocal critic of Nielsen, now a common stance, but was also willing to publicly question the viability of YouTube, Google and Facebook for blue-chip advertisers during a time when they were vacuuming up 80 cents of every ad dollar but also spooking advertisers by placing their messages alongside inappropriate videos circulating freely on the platform.
“Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter,” wrote Twitter owner Elon Musk on Thursday on the platform. He then dropped another bombshell, considering the frathouse that is tech’s top leadership that the company’s new CEO would be a woman.
“She will be starting in ~6 weeks!” Musk announced, before addressing his own plans. “My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.”
Elon Musk said in December that he would step down as CEO as soon as he found someone “foolish enough to take the job.” He had also previewed that his role would transition to running software and servers at the company. The billionaire had promised to abide by the result of a Twitter poll in which he asked users if he should step down. More than 57% voted “yes.”
Musk made the announcement about 3:45 ET, and it appeared to be greeted as good news by investors in Tesla, amid concerns that running the social media platform was a distraction. In the 15 minutes before the market closed, shares in Tesla rose to close at their highest point since April 19, at $172. That company accounts for the lion share of Musk’s vast wealth.
Musk’s Twitter announcement was also a tease, as it set off a guessing game of who the next CEO will be. It also generated some skepticism given that he has previously previewed decisions that were delayed or did not materialize.