New Twitter CEO says she is excited to help transform the firm

Top job: Musk and Yaccarino at a conference in Miami Beach, Florida, prior to her appointment as Twitter’s new CEO. The advertising veteran said she is excited about moving the company forward. — AP

SAN FRANCISCO: Newly appointed Twitter chief executive officer (CEO) Linda Yaccarino says that she has been inspired by owner Elon Musk’s vision to create a brighter future and is excited to help transform the social media platform.

Saturday was the first time Yaccarino had spoken publicly since the news broke last Thursday that she was in talks to become the next CEO of Twitter.

Musk, who has served as CEO since his US$44bil (RM198bil) buyout of Twitter last October, announced her appointment last Friday.

“I’ve long been inspired by his vision to create a brighter future. I’m excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together,” Yaccarino tweeted.

Yaccarino, who as advertising chief for Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal spent several years modernising its ad business, said she is committed to Twitter’s future and said user feedback is vital to building Twitter 2.0.

Yaccarino will take over a social media platform that has been trying to reverse a plunge in ad revenue and is beset with challenges, along with a heavy debt load.

Since Musk acquired Twitter, advertisers have fled the platform, worried that their ads could appear next to inappropriate content after the company lost nearly 80% of its staff.

Musk earlier this year acknowledged that Twitter had suffered a massive decline in ad revenue.

While Musk said Yaccarino would help build an “everything app”, which he has previously said could offer a variety of services such as peer-to-peer payments, his selection of an advertising veteran signalled that digital ads would continue to be a core focus of the business. — Reuters