Since the day Elon Musk took over Twitter in late 2022 and promptly rebranded it as X, the platform has been in a nonstop cycle of controversy and chaos, including plenty of executive turnover.
Early on, Musk promised to transform the app into an “everything platform,” complete with payments, video, news, AI, and more. But in the process, X has lost significant ad revenue — hundreds of millions to billions, according to some reports — tangled with regulators, especially in Europe, infuriated watchdog groups, and alienated both advertisers and users.
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Musk also fired around 80% of the Twitter staff shortly after taking over, saying at the time that “drastic action” was required to keep the company alive. Now, another major piece of Musk’s vision is gone.
Linda Yaccarino, the advertising executive he brought in to restore credibility and woo back big brands, has abruptly resigned as CEO.
Her departure, confirmed by both X and Yaccarino herself, comes amid yet another storm — this time, over the company’s AI chatbot posting Nazi propaganda.
Her resignation is just the latest twist in a messy story that’s come to define Musk’s tenure at Twitter: overpromising and underdelivering with a whole lot of mess in the middle.
Image source: Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images/TS
Linda Yaccarino: the fixer who couldn’t fix X
When Linda Yaccarino joined X in 2023, her appointment was seen as a power move. The longtime NBCUniversal ad chief had deep relationships with Fortune 500 brands, a polished public presence, and a reputation for getting things done.
Yaccarino was brought in to make X relevant and legitimate again, and her background made her uniquely qualified for the job. Before joining Twitter, Yaccarino had led NBC’s advertising operation for over a decade, chaired the Ad Council, and helped launch the streaming network Peacock.
If anyone could repair the platform’s — in reality, Musk’s — toxic relationship with advertisers, it was her.
She made some progress. Under her leadership, X rolled out brand safety tools, secured deals with the NFL and Visa, and even claimed that 96% of advertisers had returned to the platform. She oversaw new features like Community Notes, a smart-TV app, and the launch of X’s payment product, all part of Musk’s “everything app” push.
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But for every step forward, there were two steps back. Who was to blame? Almost always Musk.
When he wasn’t reinstating banned accounts or spreading conspiracy theories, he was telling advertisers — Yaccarino’s people — to go F*** themselves. She reportedly urged him to tone things down. He didn’t.
Then came the final straw: Last week, X’s AI chatbot Grok — freshly integrated after a merger with Musk’s AI company xAI — started posting pro-Hitler content. The backlash was instant. Yaccarino was once again in the hot seat. And one day later, she resigned.
Why is CEO Linda Yaccacino leaving X now?
The official line from Yaccarino is gracious — a thank-you to the team and pride in what they built. But the timing says more than the words. Her two-year equity cliff just passed, meaning she could walk away with her stock.
X also recently folded into xAI, shifting the company’s focus away from advertising and toward AI and subscriptions — two areas outside her wheelhouse.
Musk hasn’t named a replacement yet. Some insiders expect he’ll simply retake the CEO title himself. Others believe he’ll elevate a loyalist who won’t challenge him — sound familiar?
Either way, Yaccarino’s exit marks the end of an experiment, one where X tried to look and act like a normal business.
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