X chief shakes up inner circle amid cost-cutting push

Linda Yaccarino is reshaping the top team at Twitter/X, under pressure from Elon Musk to boost sales and cut costs

The change up comes as tensions grow between the company's chief Linda Yaccarino and its owner Elon Musk as she struggles with the social media platform's financial health. 

The chief executive of social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Linda Yaccarino, has shaken up her inner circle in the face of pressure from owner Elon Musk to boost sales and cut costs, according to reports.

This month Yaccarino fired her right-hand man and head of business operations and communications, Joe Benarroch, the Financial Times has said, citing three people familiar with the matter.

X did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment on the report.

Before joining X in June 2023, Benarroch worked at Comcast's NBCUniversal, where he oversaw communication strategy for its advertising and partnerships division. 

X's head of global government affairs, Nick Pickles will take over Benarroch's responsibilities, with an expanded role including directing all global communications, the Financial Times said.

Tensions between owner and CEO

The reshuffle stems from growing tensions between Musk and Yaccarino, as she struggles to steady X's financial health, according to the report.

Steve Davis, a longstanding Musk ally and chief executive of his Boring Company, was brought in to review X’s finances and performance management, the newspaper added.

Last week, Mr Musk attempted to repair some relationships with advertisers. During an interview at the Cannes Lions creativity festival, he addressed his outburst from last year where he told-off prospective advertisers who didn’t want to use his social media platform.

Social media platform faces challenges

The outburst came following a challenging first few years with Mr Musk in charge of the company which relies on ads for the bulk of its revenue. He said: 

Advertisers have a right to appear next to content that they think is compatible with their brands. 

Since his takeover, Mr Musk has loosened some of the app’s content restrictions and welcomed back many banned accounts. Musk’s own behaviour, too, has been an issue.

X was on pace for about $2.5 billion in total advertising revenue in 2023 — that would have reflected a drop of roughly 45% since 2021, the last full year before Musk’s arrival.

• Reuters