Working for Elon Musk may be the very definition of precarious employment. The entire Tesla Supercharger staff found this out the hard way when they were collectively fired without any explanation.
Now it’s Joe Benarroch’s turn. X’s former head of global business operations, who was personally hired by CEO Linda Yaccarino just days after starting the job, left after just over a year, he said profile on LinkedIn.
And the former chairman of NBCUniversal’s global advertising could be in the crosshairs herself, according to a report Financial Times on Sunday. Citation Anonymous sources wrote that Yaccarino felt the need to shake up her management team by firing Benarroch for allegedly failing to adequately communicate to clients in advance that X would soon allow consensual sharing of pornography, citing three company sources. (Pornography has long been present on Twitter, but was not previously officially allowed.)
While Benarroch’s messages about luring customers in by surprise could clearly have negative consequences, Musk himself also gave them reason to be confused. Musk has attempted to lure popular streamers away from Twitch by shaming the Amazon-owned rival for failing to police its own adult content platform. Attempts to make pornography legal just a few weeks later were bound to cause controversy.
Nude in bio
— dream (@dreamwastaken) May 20, 2024
When I approached him Luck X’s comment was responded to with an automated “busy now, check back later.” Benarroch did not respond to X’s request for testimony.
Musk’s social media platform has been suffering heavy losses since he added $1 billion in annual interest to its underlying value in late October 2022 to finance his $44 billion acquisition.
While X remains a private company, its problems potentially threaten to spill over into Tesla, as the electric vehicle maker is Musk’s main source of wealth and the stock sale was used to fund his Twitter efforts. Tesla shares have fallen 50% since Musk’s interest in the social media platform was revealed in April 2022.
In September, Yaccarino suggested that X could actually turn a profit in early 2024. But the nonprofit’s investigation showing that X ran ads next to pro-Nazi posts subsequently prompted an exodus of advertisers from companies like Disney and raised new concerns. due to possible financial collapse. Instead of diplomacy, Musk decided to go on the attack, threatening to name names and shame advertisers if X went bankrupt.
Direct threat to Yaccarino’s authority
Musk seems unhappy with the pace of improvements in X, and lately knocked his Boring Company CEO Steve Davis was forced to take a closer look at her underlying value, which Yaccarino’s confidants told the FT was a direct challenge to her authority.
Yaccarino herself constantly faces speculation that she is nothing more than a puppet CEO who has been given the job. relieve tension Musk runs the company and, when necessary, throws any grenades at the centi-billionaire.
When she spoke last week about the difficulties of overcoming impostor syndrome – the feeling that one has not truly earned one’s status and position – she was asked what the best message she had ever received from him was.
Welcome to the pack @benarroch_joe! From one bird to another.
Let’s get to work @Twitter! #timetofly
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) June 4, 2023
Instead of giving an example of how he strengthens her or encourages her to do better, the first thing that came to Yaccarino’s mind was the day Musk announced her hiring, not anything that had happened in the intervening 13 months.
Yaccarino’s room for maneuver was already limited amid continued losses, and now she has to bear the blame for personally vouching for Benarroch, her former assistant, in the first place.
Unless Yaccarino can better leverage his extensive catalog to regain contacts in the advertising industry, Benarroch may not be the only former NBCUniversal executive updating his LinkedIn profile.