Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s chairman of global advertising and partnerships, is said to be close to being named Twitter CEO, according to people familiar with the situation. The move would represent a seismic shift in the world of tech and media, bringing Yaccarino into a powerful new position at Twitter, which can use a power broker to bring back advertisers to the platform.

The latest: NBCU names replacement for Linda Yaccarino

Musk announced by tweet today that he would hand over the CEO position, but did not name the person who would take over. “Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter,” Musk tweeted referring to Twitter by its new corporate parent company name “X,” adding “she will be starting in ~6 weeks.” 

Yaccarino was still in prep this evening for NBCU’s upfronts presentation, which is set for Monday, when the network is supposed to meet brands for the yearly advertising showcase. An NBCU spokesperson told Ad Age “Linda is in back-to-back rehearsals for the upfront.”

Immediately after Musk declared that he had a new CEO in mind, media observers started to guess that it would be Yaccarino, because she has cultivated a close relationship with Musk since he bought Twitter in October. Yaccarino has been one of Musk’s most vocal supporters at a time when those have been hard to find. Yaccarino has praised Musk, and maybe even more importantly, liked his tweets.

Despite over three decades in TV, first at Turner before joining NBCUniversal, Yaccarino had recently begun likening her post and NBCU sales division to that of a tech company rather than a media company, telling Ad Age previously she considered it in league with Silicon Valley companies rather than those of the broadcast world.

Read more about Linda Yaccarino

Speaking about Yaccarino with industry sources, the topic of her ambitions is guaranteed to arise—her being passed over for NBCU’s CEO for Jeff Shell (who was recently dismissed from the company for inappropriate relations with a worker) and conversations around her likelihood for the role at Twitter have long been circulating.

NBCU touts Twitter as one of its largest digital distribution partners.

Just weeks after Musk entered Twitter offices for the first time, Yaccarino was one of the only major media execs outwardly backing him. “There is no surrogate for Twitter,” Yaccarino said at an Ad Age event in early November. “Twitter is the single, No. 1 biggest content partner, content distribution partner for NBCUniversal.”

Since then, Yaccarino and Musk have only grown closer. In April, Yaccarino held a talk with Musk at Possible, an event in Miami affiliated with the marketing trade group MMA Global. This month, NBCUniversal and Twitter renewed their partnership during NewFronts week, the digital advertising confab. NBCU is planning major Olympics coverage on Twitter for Paris 2024. Through it all, Yaccarino has been in Musk’s Twitter replies with friendly likes, comments, and Musk’s favorite emojis.

Twitter’s ad revenue

For its part, Twitter needs a known quantity in advertising who could help steer advertisers back to the platform. Advertisers left the service in droves right after Musk took over, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. Ad Age reported that by one measure Twitter’s ad revenue dropped more than 70% year over year in December, following a 46% drop in November, Musk’s first full month on the job, according to Standard Media Index, which tracks ad spending based on receipts from the largest ad agencies.

Twitter had a cascade of problems with brands after Musk took over, prompting ad agencies and marketers to pull their money. The fear was that Musk would not abide by ad industry standards that had been established in recent years to moderate social media. Musk had implemented arbitrary policies, such as selling blue check marks. When he first floated that idea of selling the check marks, there was a wave of impersonators trolling brands. Musk has equally alienated media companies such as NPR, BBC, PBS and The New York Times.

Twitter users have been worried about a rise in offensive speech and trolls newly empowered by blue check marks.

Despite it all, brands have started to spend on ads in some cases, coming back for big events such as the Super Bowl. In recent weeks, Ad Age has seen ads from Mondelēz, for instance, one of the major marketers that had paused ads. Mondelēz owns Oreo and Ritz. McDonald’s has also been back advertising on Twitter. Even still, there are major doubts that these brands can get back to pre-Musk levels of spending.