Linda Yaccarino, CEO of Elon Musk’s X, to step down in surprise move

X CEO Linda Yaccarino testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with other social media platform heads on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024, to discuss child safety online. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Linda Yaccarino, one of Elon Musk’s top deputies as CEO of his X social media site, is exiting the company in a surprise move just months after the platform was acquired by the billionaire’s AI startup, xAI.

Yaccarino, 61, made the announcement in a post on X suggesting it was her decision, though Musk has a history of dismissing deputies suddenly. “I’ve decided to step down as CEO of X,” Yaccarino wrote.

Her departure adds to turbulence in Musk’s sprawling business empire, including falling sales at his electric vehicle maker Tesla and AI-related controversies. Musk has been embroiled in a war of words with former ally President Donald Trump.

Yaccarino, an advertising industry veteran, held the post for two years after being brought aboard to help revitalize X’s reputation among marketers, who had been fleeing the platform over concerns about a rise in hateful or otherwise toxic content. She did not give a specific reason for her departure and both X and Yaccarino did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

It was unclear when the CEO’s resignation would take effect.

“Thank you for your contributions,” Musk wrote on X replying to Yaccarino’s resignation post.

While wooing marketers, Yaccarino sued some advertisers and a major industry group known as the World Federation of Advertisers, alleging they had colluded to deny X ad dollars, including through a boycott of the platform.

FLAGGING ADVERTISER CONFIDENCE

Yaccarino’s resignation comes one day after Grok, the AI chatbot developed by xAI, posted content on the platform with antisemitic tropes and praise for Adolf Hitler. The posts were deleted following a public backlash and Yaccarino wrote she was working to restore advertiser confidence and prioritize safety on X.

Analysts said Yaccarino’s task was difficult, given Musk’s reputation and the more prominent placement of extreme content on X that had repelled some advertisers. “Yaccarino had to try to run the business while also regularly putting out fires,” said Emarketer vice president Jasmine Enberg, who added that with X’s ad business expected to show growth in 2025, she “accomplished what she was hired to do.”

Yaccarino, previously chair of global advertising and partnerships at Comcast’s NBCUniversal CMCSA.O, may have left as “a result of a lack of fit between her approach and Elon Musk’s style,” said Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson. “This may have come to a head when the embedded AI chat Grok started responding to AI posts in an increasingly offensive manner yesterday.”

In March, Musk’s AI startup xAI acquired the social media platform in a $33-billion all-stock deal. Neither X nor Yaccarino said who will take her place.

Tesla TSLA.O, of which Musk is CEO, is also dealing with an exodus of top executives. The billionaire’s confidant at Tesla, Omead Afshar, and North America HR director Jenna Ferrua left the company last month, sources told Reuters. Musk had spread himself thin this year while running Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency before leaving the post in May.

Tesla shares slipped about 1 per cent on the news about Yaccarino.

X is grappling with a heavy debt load, and Yaccarino has had to often deal with controversies stirred up by Musk, including his endorsement of antisemitic conspiracy theories in late 2023. Musk renamed the platform, which was formerly known as Twitter.

Under Yaccarino, X introduced new features aimed at turning the social media site into the “everything app” that Musk aimed for, including partnering with Visa V.N to offer direct payment solutions and launching a smart TV app.

The company was also exploring rolling out an X credit or debit card, the Financial Times reported last month.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Rod Nickel)