(Reuters) – NBCUniversal said on Friday its head of advertising, Linda Yaccarino, will leave the company, effective immediately.
Yaccarino is in talks to become the new CEO of Twitter, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the situation.
At NBCU, Ms. Yaccarino had served as chairperson of global partnerships and advertising. She worked for NBCU for more than ten years and has long been an industry leader in discovering more accurate techniques to gauge the success of advertising. She played a crucial role in the rollout of NBCU’s ad-supported Peacock streaming service as the company’s head of advertising sales.
In a tweet Thursday, Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, said that he had hired a new CEO, but didn’t say who it was. “She will be starting in ~6 weeks!” Mr. Musk said in the tweet.
Advertising President Mark Marshall will step in as interim chairman of NBCUniversal’s advertising and partnerships group.
Ms. Yaccarino said in a statement to the WSJ on Friday: “It has been an absolute honor to be part of Comcast NBCUniversal and lead the most incredible team.”
She didn’t say what her next move would be.
(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel, Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Chizu Nomiyama)
