Secret tensions behind departure of Elon Musk's most important female CEO Linda Yaccarino
The sudden exit of the top executive at Elon Musk's X has exposed months of secret tensions that had been brewing behind closed doors.
CEO Linda Yaccarino announced her departure from the company on Wednesday morning, saying she had 'decided to step down' after leading a 'historic business turnaround' at the social platform.
Insiders believe her toxic relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire is what really finally drove her out.
Sources told Status that Musk had completely lost confidence in his handpicked chief, who joined X in 2023 after 12 years at NBCUniversal.
'He put her on notice last year,' a source told Status of the CEO, who's job was to lure advertisers back to X after Musk bought the company in 2022.
Instead, she became a messenger for advertisers' complaints about the platform, which 'Musk has no patience for,' according to Status.
'Elon found a lot of the advertiser requests around brand safety to be tedious at best and Linda became the voice of all that,' Lou Paskalis, an advertising executive and friend of Yaccarino, told the outlet.
'Over time, it created some scar tissue with him. She was advocating [addressing] things that he didn't want to do, starting with his antics on the platform.'
Linda Yaccarino announced her departure from X on Wednesday morning, just two years after joining the company as CEO
Insiders believe Yaccarino's toxic relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire is what really finally drove her out
The pair also reportedly clashed over their working styles.
Musk 'preferred his team to communicate in quick-fire bulleted emails or Signal messages and would get frustrated at Yaccarino's polished presentations and emails,' sources told the Wall Street Journal.
The final blow came in March when Musk's AI company xAI acquired X, effectively pushing Yaccarino aside and making it clear advertising wasn't the future.
'That was really telling to me,' Paskalis told Status.
'There is no way to see that as something that didn't limit or constrain Linda's access to Elon.'
In recent weeks, there was talk that Yaccarino would be pushed even further down the chain of command.
Her announcement came just after xAI's chatbot, Grok, praised Adolf Hitler and made a string of deeply antisemitic posts on the platform.
The bot began repeatedly referring to itself as 'MechaHitler' and said that Hitler would have 'plenty' of solutions to 'restore family values' to America.
The final blow came in March, when Musk's AI company xAI acquired X, effectively pushing Yaccarino aside
Yaccarino announced the news of her departure in a post on X, thanking Musk for entrusting her with 'the responsibility of protecting free speech'
The company said it had removed 'inappropriate' social media posts on Wednesday following complaints from users.
These posts followed Musk's announcement that he was taking measures to ensure the AI bot was more 'politically incorrect.'
Yaccarino, 61, now faces the challenge of moving on, after two years of defending Musk's behavior has left her 'decimated.'
When she joined X, she was one of America's most respected advertising executives.
'She's burned so many bridges,' a former associate told Status, 'people hate her right now.'