New Delhi, India

Elon Musk announced on Thursday (May 11) that he has found someone who can replace him as the boss of the micro-blogging site Twitter, leaving people wondering who will take the reins next. On Friday, May 12, Elon Musk announced that Linda Yaccarino would assume the post of CEO of Twitter.

In a tweet on Friday, Musk said, "I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter! @LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app."

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Twitter became a top trend on Thursday after Musk had said in a tweet, "Excited to announce that I've hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!" He didn't provide any other details. 

The Wall Street Journal had earlier cited people familiar with the situation to say that the next chief executive officer of Twitter (X/Twitter) could be NBCUniversal's head of advertising, Linda Yaccarino. 

Musk in his earlier tweet had also mentioned: "My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops." 

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News agency Reuters had also reported that Yaccarino could get the top post at Twitter, quoting a Silicon Valley executive and a former Hollywood executive who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Musk took over as CEO of Twitter when he completed his $44 billion purchase of the company in October, and in December he said that he would step aside when he will find "someone foolish enough to take the job". The buzz around Yaccarino's name along with Musk's message, had people asking - is she "foolish enough"? 

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Who is Linda Yaccarino? 

So far it is known that Yaccarino is the top advertising sales executive at NBCUniversal. She interviewed Musk at an advertising conference in Miami last month. 

Her LinkedIn profile states that she has been with NBC Universal since 2011 and currently, she is the chairperson, of global advertising and partnerships. For over eight years, she served as the chairman, of advertising and client partnerships. Previously, she served as the cable entertainment and digital advertising sales division in the company. 

Before NBCUniversal, Yaccarino worked as an executive vice president/COO of advertising sales, marketing and acquisitions at Turner. She joined NBCU in 2011, after 15 years at Turner Entertainment. 

Her profile also mentioned that she is an alumna of Penn State University, having studied liberal arts and telecommunications. 

Breather for Tesla investors? 

The announcement may also come as a breather for Tesla investors as they have raised concerns about the time that Musk is devoting to turning around Twitter. Tesla Inc shares jumped 2.4 per cent in volume spike on the news. 

(With inputs from agencies) 

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