2023-05-12 01:35:28
As often, Elon Musk has fun, even for the most important announcements. The billionaire proclaimed on Twitter, Thursday, May 11, that he had hired a general manager to replace him at the head of the platform, but without giving the identity of the chosen one.
“Excited to announce that I have hired a new General Manager for X/Twitter. She will start in about 6 weeks! »announces, in his message, the one who bought the company at the end of October and renamed it “X Corp” last month. “I will become executive chairman of the board and chief technology officer, to oversee products, software and operations”he adds.
Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!
My role will transi… https://t.co/VBozZ0fceu
According to Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, Linda Yaccarino, director of advertising for the American media group NBCUniversal, is said to be in negotiations for the position of general manager of Twitter.
The boss of Tesla and SpaceX had made a poll in December to ask Twitter users whether or not he should leave the direction of the platform. Some 17 million of them had spoken, including 57% in favor of his departure. After some prevarication – he had insinuated that this result was the result of an army of automated accounts – Elon Musk had ended up tweeting that he planned to give way as soon as he had “found someone crazy enough” to succeed him.
Tesla stock immediately rises more than 2%
His announcement on Thursday drew enthusiastic comments from his many fans, and also sent Tesla stock up more than 2% on Wall Street, as the many-hatted executive’s time at Twitter worried the market.
The entrepreneur has transformed the Californian social network. On the day of the takeover, he immediately fired former boss Parag Agrawal, former legal director Vijaya Gadde and former chief financial officer Ned Segal. He then abruptly fired half the staff, and continued to fire employees by the dozens, from engineers who had criticized him to Esther Crawford, the architect of a new subscription and rare public support for the tempestuous boss.
The delisted group now has around 2,000 employees instead of 7,500, according to estimates. The social network has also changed a lot. Elon Musk let back many controversial personalities, who had been banned for violating content moderation rules.
The blue checkmarks that guaranteed the authenticity and credibility of the accounts that had obtained them after verification are now available to everyone, with a paid subscription to Twitter Blue. And several Western press organizations, such as the BBC or the American national radio NPR, have castigated the label of “government funded media” which had once been attached to them.
Leak of advertisers
These chaotic changes and Elon Musk’s various provocations have scared away many advertisers, on whom the platform’s business model depends. Twitter is set to earn less than 3 billion dollars (2.75 billion euros) in 2023, against 4.14 billion (3.80 billion) in 2022, or 28% less, according to Insider Intelligence.
“A new leader is the only way for the company to move forward”, responded Thursday Jasmine Enberg, an analyst at this research firm. She believes that if Elon Musk takes a step back, society has a chance to “regain the trust of advertisers”. “It’s hard to imagine anyone who is more controversial or causes more damage to the advertising business than Musk”.
At the end of March, the multibillionaire estimated the value of Twitter at 20 billion dollars, against 44 billion at the time of the acquisition, according to an internal document consulted by several American media. But “it looks like we will break even in the second quarter” 2023, he tweeted.
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