X CEO Linda Yaccarino is working to get staff on board with a major overhaul at the company formerly known as Twitter.
Elon Musk, who purchased the firm for $44 billion last year, announced over the weekend that Twitter would become “X,” and that the social media platform would completely “bid adieu” to the Twitter brand—including its iconic bird logo.
Freshly minted X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who took the reins from Musk last month, publicly gave the rebrand her seal of approval on Sunday evening, before addressing the changes with staff when they returned to the office on Monday.
In an internal memo first obtained by CNBC, the newly rebranded company’s CEO insisted that X would “go even further” than Twitter had done “to transform the global town square—and impress the world all over again.”
“17 years ago, Twitter made a lasting imprint on the world,” Yaccarino wrote. “It created a new dynamic for how people communicated, debated, and responded to things happening in the world… But equally all our users and partners constantly challenged us to dream bigger, to innovate faster, and to fulfill our great potential.”
While the announcement this weekend appeared spontaneous, the billionaire Tesla boss had previously spoken about his plans to transform Twitter into X as part of his ambition to create an “everything app.”
On Sunday evening, Musk and Yaccarino explained that X would become a platform with a much broader offering than its original social network capabilities, eventually incorporating a messaging service as well as payments and banking.
Musk previously expressed interest in making Twitter a platform similar to China’s WeChat, which offers a plethora of services including instant messaging, flight bookings and payments. The app, which has a user base of more than 1 billion people, is owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent.
“Our company uniquely has the drive to make this possible,” Yaccarino told X employees in Monday’s email. “Many companies say they want to move fast—but we enjoy moving at the speed of light, and when we do, that’s X.”
She insisted that everyone working at the company should be proud of how quickly they had carried out innovations over the past nine months—the period in which the firm has been under Musk’s leadership—noting that usage of the platform is at an all time high.
“Please don’t take this moment for granted,” she urged employees. “You’re writing history, and there’s no limit to our transformation.”
Yaccarino and Musk would be working across all teams within the firm in the rebranding process, she told workers, before signing off with a rallying cry: “Let’s go make that next big impression on the world, together.”
Hiccups and criticism
While Musk has insisted that the changes at Twitter make sense and Yaccarino has referred to the rebrand as “a second chance to make another big impression,” the decision has already been met with hiccups and criticism.
Experts have warned that by changing Twitter’s name, Musk could be wiping up to $20 billion from the company’s value, while X users have expressed skepticism over whether the platform’s new moniker will stick.
Meanwhile, the removal of the Twitter sign from the company’s San Francisco headquarters was disrupted by police on Monday when officers responded to a call about an unpermitted street closure.
It has also been reported that Facebook and Threads parent company Meta—a major rival to X—may actually own the rights to the “X” trademark.
