Yaccarino takes wheel at Twitter early as advertising woes become public
- Reference: 1685986815
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/06/05/yaccarino_takes_twitter_helm_early/
- Source link:
It was [1]believed Yaccarino would begin closer to the start of July based on the six week window Musk gave in mid May, but there are plenty of reasons to accelerate that transition.
For one, there's last week's resignation of Twitter head of trust and safety, Ella Irwin, which was followed by the resignation of AJ Brown, Twitter's head of brand safety and ad quality. That was followed shortly afterward by news of another resignation in the same department, with brand safety partnership program manager Maie Aiyed [2]also fleeing Twitter 2.0.
[3]
It's not difficult to understand why Twitter employees, especially those whose job it is to [4]moderate the site and maintain a [5]good [6]relationship with [7]advertisers , aren't hanging around. Internal Twitter documents obtained by The New York Times that reveal the poor state of the Musk-owned company's advertising revenue only give further justification to those departures.
[8]
[9]
According to the NYT's report on the documents, Twitter's US advertising revenue for April to the first week of May was $88 million – a whopping 59 percent decrease from the same period last year. Additionally, Twitter has regularly fallen short of its weekly sales projections, on occasions by as much as 30 percent, indicating ad shortfalls may have been regular.
The documents, the NYT said, forecast weekly ad revenue in June to be down at least 56 percent compared to the same period in 2022, while the documents and several Twitter employees the Times spoke to said they believed there's unlikely to be much improvement "anytime soon."
[10]
Twitter only responded to our requests to confirm the report in its usual manner: With a poomoji.
Yaccarino already stacking the Twitter deck
When Musk announced Yaccarino's hiring last month it was assumed with good reason that she was being brought onboard to handle Twitter's struggles to maintain its advertising revenue, classically its [11]main source of income, under Musk's tenure.
[12]Reddit blackout planned over app-killing API prices
[13]Elon Musk hit with insider trading claims over his Dogecoin crypto-hype
[14]Twitter now worth just a third of what Musk paid for it
[15]EU tells Twitter 'you can run but you can't hide' from disinformation policy
To help her, Twitter is [16]tapping former NBCUniversal advertising executive Joe Benarroch to join its leadership team, though in what role specifically remains unclear. While at NBCUniversal, Benarroch reported to Yaccarino as head of communications strategy for advertising and partnerships, a role similar to those that opened up at Twitter with the departures of Aiyed and Brown.
The pair will have their work cut out for them: Along with its tattered reputation, Twitter's financial state has been deteriorating too: Musk himself valued the company at [17]less than half he paid for it in March, and last week investment firm Fidelity reported that its stake in the company had sunk to around a [18]third of what it was worth prior to Musk's takeover. Clawing that capital back is going to require a charm offensive Twitter's leadership (prior to today) seemed incapable of. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/12/new_twitter_ceo/
[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/02/elon-musk-twitter-face-brand-safety-concerns-after-executives-depart.html
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZH5a-hwrTZ7UTjqK6Tv2sQAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/eu_us_regulators_concerned_twitter/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/02/twitter_advertising_push/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/19/musk_says_twitter_advertisers_can/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/02/advertisers_twitter_concerns/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZH5a-hwrTZ7UTjqK6Tv2sQAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZH5a-hwrTZ7UTjqK6Tv2sQAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZH5a-hwrTZ7UTjqK6Tv2sQAAAMA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://seekingalpha.com/article/4469485-how-does-twitter-make-money
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/05/reddit_blackout_planned_over_appkilling/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/02/elon_musk_dogecoin_insider_trading/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/31/twitter_value_decline/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/30/twitter_disinformation/
[16] https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-taps-former-nbcuniversal-executive-business-operations-role-wsj-2023-06-04/
[17] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/mar/26/elon-musk-twitter-value-leaked-memo-less-than-half-paid
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/31/twitter_value_decline/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Plus Musk already laid off (or induced to quit) 75% of employees, so even if some of that was fat its clear that at this point you'd be cutting really deep into muscle and bone.
Is revenue the biggest problem?
OK 59% is bad, catastrophic for any other organisation. But with the salary bill down around 75% and datacentre by 30% plus consquent slimming of other costs - the operating deficeit might be manageable if it wasn't also required to finance the debt loaded on the company. That's Elon's greatest contribution to the company balance sheet. Will the creditors stand by him?
Fidelity's investment in X/Twitter is smallscale compared to SpaceX & Tesla. I guess they just see it as a sweetener to secure their cut of NASA's budget. As for Saudi Arabia - again small change for a grip on America's right.
Re: Is revenue the biggest problem?
Interest payments are almost three times Twitter V1 revenue . Firing all the staff and not paying any bills would not be sufficient to make a profit with the old business model. The obvious way forward would be to [1]expand the user base for his [2]real skill set .
[1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/twitter-joins-etoro-let-users-see-real-time-stock-information-2023-04-13/
[2] https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/elon-musk-sued-258-billion-over-alleged-dogecoin-pyramid-scheme-2022-06-16/
Re: Is revenue the biggest problem?
His bold mission statement was that he would grow the platform and its revenue.
A 59% loss in advertising suggests he has completely failed to do the former. The draconian cost cutting can only be viewed as a successful move it if doesn't have long term impact on the functioning of the company. So far various features have failed or been removed, the site suffers from reliability problems, and we've not seen any of the "rapid innovation" Musk told us he could deliver with his highly motivated teams and skilled management.
So even the cost cutting can hardly be regarded as a success.
What the investors think is anyone's guess. They might want to prompt an ownership change sooner, before what remaining value is further eroded.
His current antics fighting the gender wars suggest that Musk is completely incapable of avoiding offense, and the slow decline of the rest of the platform suggest he's not the great tech leader we were promised. Given that all of the other companies he purchased came with highly skilled senior management who delivered the actual innovation, this should perhaps not come as a surprise.
Re: Is revenue the biggest problem?
Don't forget he's quit paying rent not just on HQ but seemingly across everywhere Twitter occupies so that's a "savings" too. The numbers may look decent on their financial statements but they can't keep stiffing people indefinitely. At some point the landlords will sue, and a lease is a contract so it will be open and shut for a judge to order payment with bankruptcy as the only way to avoid payment at that point.
Re: Is revenue the biggest problem?
It's a delicate balancing act: if a company is forced into bankruptcy then all the creditors line up for a cut of what remains. That, in itself, would be an expensive and time consuming process with little prospect of getting more than a few Cents in the Dollar back. For that reason it's sometimes better to aim for a settlement figure rather than go down the nuclear route.
Clawing that capital back is going to require a charm offensive
Won't happen because Musk is incapable of charm. He is however very good at being offensive.
Good luck to any new executive that dares to tell him the truth - that the only way the advertisers are coming back is if he shuts his arrogant mouth.
Re: Clawing that capital back is going to require a charm offensive
that the only way the advertisers are coming back is if he shuts his arrogant mouth
I think it is too late for that. They will never be back, the only thing shutting his mouth might do is prevent more from leaving. The only way they can get advertisers back is if Musk is gone. Not gone as CEO but gone from any ownership stake and the algorithm fixed so everyone isn't forced to see all his tweets.
Linda Yaccarino is reportedly starting work at the bird site today
Interesting change of direction for someone with a former career.
Welcome to the glass cliff Yaccarino
Ladies and gents and all those inbetween.... the scapegoat has entered the building.
I suspect the only thing that could save Twitter is to "fire" Elon Musk.
It's the...
Benny Hill [Elon Musk] Show
Cue closing credits
to the sound of Yakety [Yaccarty] Sax
Musk and Yaccarino chasing advertisers
Absolutely nothing new under the sun...
..."Clawing that capital back is going to require a charm offensive Twitter's leadership (prior to today) seemed incapable of."
Really? Whatever happened to Melon Mush's very loud and very bravado-laced threat when Microsoft dropped its advertising with the TwitHead-- "LAWSUIT TIME!!"
Seemed awfully charming at the time; almost meek and mild from someone with Mush's reputation as the consummate show-boater and grand-stander. He's trying for "consummate intimidate-er".
Regarding the title--I can't count how many times I've seen, over the years, an unsuspecting schmuck beeing conned into taking a high-powered, high-sounding job strictly for the purpose of being blamed for the ineptitude of the previous shithead. And the ineptitude of the shithead, in this case, is so monumental, Yaccarino's reasons for being (eventually) fired should include "stupidity". No, make that "idiocy".
But, there's no explaining "Look at ME! I get to work for MELON MUSH!!!
I'd usually suspect mass layoffs following such losses, but the Twitterati seem to be ahead of that curve with resignations.
"You can't fire me if I quit!"