The rebrand of Twitter to X.com this week has been widely considered as among the most consequential steps in Elon Musk’s endeavor to reshape the social media company. It is also being seen as a deciding moment for the company’s recently appointed chief executive officer, Linda Yaccarino.
Yaccarino, a longtime advertising executive, took the helm of Twitter in May. Her appointment came after months of controversial decisions from Musk, who bought Twitter for $44bn in October 2022 and proceeded quickly to lay off the majority of its staff and alienate advertisers with new policies. Faced with growing criticism over his erratic decision-making, Musk promised to bring in a new CEO – a position he himself described as a “painful” job that anyone would be “foolish” to take on.
