Yaccarino Resigns As X CEO: Experts Say It's Surprising She Stayed This Long

 

Linda Yaccarino has resigned from her role as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of X, formerly known as Twitter, marking an end to her two-year tenure in the high-profile position dedicated to the social media platform. In an X post, Yaccarino shared that the role of CEO for X was a great opportunity in her career and thanked Musk for entrusting her with an “extraordinary mission” of protecting free speech and making X an “Everything App”. She also thanked her team for their dedication, who worked hard and took significant steps to make the platform safe for children, restoring “advertiser confidence”, and making it what it is today.

 

The 61-year-old also mentioned initiatives the company took during her tenure, such as Community Notes, a user-driven fact-checking feature. She also mentioned X Money—a financial services initiative scheduled to launch soon. "X is truly a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal. We couldn’t have achieved that without the support of our users, business partners, and the most innovative team in the world," said Yaacarino on X. She did not state her reason for leaving the platform. Musk responded to Yaccarino's announcement via a comment on her post.

 

“Thank you for your contributions," he said. Linda Yaccarino and her time at X As per Yaccarino’s LinkedIn profile, she had worked for over 19 years with Turner Broadcasting System, an American TV and media conglomerate, between 1992 and 2011. Following this, she served as the chairwoman of global advertising & partnership at NBCUniversal for over a decade from November 2011 to May 2023. In June 2023, Yaccarino joined X Corp as its CEO. Musk hired her after buying Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and cutting most of its staff, which also included the removal of erstwhile CEO Parag Agrawal.

 

At the time, Musk had announced that Yaccarino’s role would be focused mainly on running the company’s business operations, leaving him to focus on product design and new technology. Yaccarino was tasked with bringing big brands to advertising on X, after they had left following months of upheaval on the platform with Musk's takeover. She also operated in a supporting role to Musk’s outsized persona, both on and off X, as he relaxed content moderation rules under the banner of free speech and reinstated previously banned accounts.

 

Yaccarino’s future at X became uncertain earlier this year after Musk merged the social media platform with his artificial intelligence company, xAI. Advertising challenges have persisted, as several companies scaled back ad spending — the platform’s primary revenue source — citing concerns that Musk’s loosening of content restrictions has facilitated the spread of hateful and toxic speech. “Being the CEO of X was always going to be a tough job, and Yaccarino lasted in the role longer than many expected. Faced with a mercurial owner who never fully stepped away from the helm and continued to use the platform as his personal megaphone, Yaccarino had to try to run the business while also regularly putting out fires," said Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg to AP.

 

Forrester research director Mike Proulx said to the publication, “The only thing that’s surprising about Linda Yaccarino’s resignation is that it didn’t come sooner. It was clear from the start that she was being set up to fail by a limited scope as the company’s chief executive.” In reality, Proulx added, Musk “is and always has been at the helm of X. And that made Linda X’s CEO in title only, which is a very tough position to be in, especially for someone of Linda’s talents.”