NBC ad executive Linda Yaccarino rumored to be in talks to become next Twitter CEO

Yahoo Finance tech reporter Allie Garfinkle discusses NBCUniversal Ad Executive Linda Yaccarino in talks to become the next Twitter CEO, if Twitter is becoming a legacy media company, and the importance of ads in media.

Video transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Well, Elon Musk says he's passing the baton to a new CEO at the social networking site, Musk tweeting the new leader will start in six weeks. He adds he'll stay on as executive chairman and chief technology officer. So who's the new boss of the checkmarks?

NBCUniversal advertising head Linda Yaccarino is reportedly in talks to take over. That was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. She resigned from NBCU today. For more on this, we turn to Yahoo Finance's Allie Garfinkle.

Allie, we knew that Musk was stepping down. But now we actually know that this is a done deal here. He's made a hire.

ALLIE GARFINKLE: He's made a hire, but it's important to say off the bat here, Rachelle, that this is not fully confirmed. I think I have sent out dozens of emails and calls trying to confirm. And I know I'm not the only one.

That said, things are lining up here, right? This does make sense, right? Yaccarino, for example, is a TV ad sales veteran. She has been at NBCU for 11 years. And reportedly she's even been in touch with Musk in recent weeks.

For example she reportedly interviewed him at a panel recently that was communicating with advertisers. So as with everything with Musk, before anything is confirmed, before there are any official announcements, we should take this all with a little bit of a grain of salt for now. I would like to remind you that Musk in April did say that the new Twitter CEO would be his dog.

So it's important to say this isn't confirmed. However, it is lining up. It's also at a moment where faces are really changing for Twitter. For example Tucker Carlson, who recently left Fox News, is going to start a new show on Twitter. What this looks like is still unclear. But it's clear that it will involve some kind of direct-to-consumer business.

Additionally, Musk has reached out to former CNN anchor Don Lemon asking if he's interested in doing the same. What's most interesting to me here, Rachelle, is these are not social media names that Musk is most interested in it seems like it. These are legacy media names.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And to that point, then, does it seem as if Twitter is now becoming a media company? When you think of how it's evolved from when he first took it on to now making these incremental steps to almost make it a media/that X everything app that he's been talking about?

ALLIE GARFINKLE: It's a good question, Rachelle, and that's certainly what people are saying. And I think the hire of Yaccarino certainly takes it further in that direction, right? Last year, you know, she did lead this doubling of advertising commitments at Peacock. So she is really specialized in these legacy media companies and what it takes to sell ads at them.

So it makes sense that perhaps Twitter would take on some of the features of a legacy media company. That said, one of the key problems for Twitter over the last few months has been that advertisers have been leaving in droves. So the goal would be that Yaccarino is someone who could bring those advertisers back.

Dan Ives on our show earlier today called her a home run hire. So it's the sort of thing that the names that are being bandied around, if it is, in fact, Linda Yaccarino who takes on as CEO of Twitter, it does make sense that Twitter will become more legacy media-like. And though there are a lot of key differences between social media and legacy media, I think one of the important things to know is that there is a key similarity, which is that ads matter.

And ads matter a lot. They are revenue-driving. And if you're not selling ads at a legacy media company or on social media, you have a problem

RACHELLE AKUFFO: It's true. I mean, clearly the sands are shifting here and Musk clearly getting ahead of it at the moment. Great stuff there. Thank you for that update, Allie Garfinkle there for us.