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UPDATE: Yaccarino’s appointment as Twitter CEO was made official on Friday afternoon.
PREVIOUSLY: Hours before Linda Yaccarino was named Twitter CEO, her time at NBCUniversal has officially ended.
The longtime ad sales chief—NBCUniversal’s chairman of global advertising and partnerships—has departed the company “effective immediately,” NBCUniversal announced Friday morning.
Mark Marshall, currently president, advertising sales and client partnerships, has been named interim chairman of NBCUniversal’s advertising and partnerships group. He will report to Mark Lazarus, chairman, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.
Yaccarino’s departure—the morning after news broke that she was in talks to take over for Elon Musk as Twitter’s next CEO—comes just three days before she was set to take the stage to lead NBCUniversal’s upfront week presentation Monday morning at Radio City Music Hall. Hours later, Musk tweeted that Yaccarino will indeed be Twitter CEO, and “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.”
It upends NBCU’s upfront plans, though Marshall was already set to lead negotiations, after Yaccarino restructured her ad sales team in January, giving Marshall an elevated role, following the exit of ad sales president Laura Molen.
“It has been an absolute honor to be part of Comcast NBCUniversal and lead the most incredible team. We’ve transformed our company and the entire industry—and I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished together, and grateful to my colleagues and mentors, especially [Comcast CEO] Brian Roberts, [Comcast president] Mike Cavanagh and the entire NBCU leadership team,” said Yaccarino in a statement.
Cavanagh said in a statement: “We are grateful for Linda Yaccarino’s leadership of NBCUniversal’s advertising sales business, and for the innovative team and platform she has built. Linda has made countless contributions to the company during her 12-year tenure, and we wish her the best.”
There was still no official word about Yaccarino taking over as Twitter CEO. Earlier on Thursday, Musk—who bought the social media platform last October and two months later vowed to step down as Twitter CEO when he found “someone foolish enough to take the job”—indicated that he had settled on a replacement.