In what looks like nothing like a nepotistic money grab, CEO of dubious social media network "X" Linda Yaccarino has hired her son, with no experience selling political advertising, to sell Xitter's political ads. Xitter is targeting around $100 million in revenue from political ads during this lucrative Presidential election period.
Over the weekend, there were reports that "friends" were pleading with Yacco to quit her role at Xitter, due to her employee and boss Elon Musk cheerleading antisemites and big brand advertisers finding their ads next to Nazi-enthusiastic content. Rather than resign, the CEO has hired her son. Son of Yaccarino, who previously sold ads for a video ad backfill network, to hawk their deeply discounted inventory to desperate politicians at the height of their buying season.
Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, formerly Twitter, has turned the service's Hail Mary bet on an imagined $100 million political advertising business over to someone she trusts: her son Matt Madrazo.
Despite owner Elon Musk's attempts to convert the company into a subscription-based service, the company remains dependent on an advertising business that produced about 90% of its revenue in 2021. And in the initial months after he bought Twitter, Musk expressed a keen interest in restarting the social media company's political advertising business, which it had voluntarily shuttered in 2019.
In recent weeks, Madrazo, who previously headed ad sales at the non-political, creator-focused media firm Studio71, has been privately introducing himself to influential figures in the political ad world in Washington, D.C. He's part of what's essentially a two-man operation to restart X's political advertising business with the goal of capitalizing on the massive amounts of money that campaigns are about to spend during the 2024 elections.
I can't really see what Yaccarino gets out of staying at Twitter if it isn't money. This seems like easy money for her son. Twitter stopped taking political ads in 2019 because they were spreading disinformation, and THAT is no longer an issue with current management. With all guardrails gone and debt service payments always looming, I am pretty sure Son of Yaccarino can make some great commission.
Really seems like the wheels are coming off now. With the "thermonuclear lawsuits" and open anti-semitism from Musk, it seems an odd time to bring your son into this beautiful work environment.