Linda Yaccarino: Twitter CEO rumours circle as ad boss leaves NBCUniversal

The head of advertising at NBCUniversal, Linda Yaccarino, has stepped down amid reports that she has been tapped to lead Twitter.

NBCUniversal said Ms Yaccarino was leaving "effective immediately", after 12 years with the media company.

It followed reports that she was in talks with billionaire Elon Musk to be the chief executive of Twitter.

Mr Musk posted on Thursday that he had found a new boss and "she" would start in six weeks.

He did not name the new chief executive in his post on the platform and the company has not confirmed the move.

The entrepreneur - who bought the social media platform last year for $44bn - has been under pressure to find someone else to lead the company and refocus his attention on his other businesses, which include electric carmaker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX.

Mr Musk said he would remain involved at Twitter as executive chairman and chief technology officer.

At NBCUniversal, Ms Yaccarino oversaw roughly 2,000 people, and was involved with the launch of its streaming service.

She would bring experience in advertising to Twitter which it relies on to make money and which has waned since Mr Musk's takeover.

At an advertising conference last month, where Ms Yaccarino interviewed Mr Musk, she reminded him of the challenges he faced.

"The people in this room are your accelerated path to profitability," she said. "But there's a decent bit of sceptics in the room.

"There's people who cannot separate, they're challenged by separating, the man, his opinions and the microphone he now owns."

Many big companies halted their spending on the platform in the weeks after Mr Musk took charge, concerned about how their brands might be affected by changes he was making.

Mr Musk immediately fired thousands of staff, including people who had been tasked with dealing with abusive posts.

He has also overhauled the way the service authenticates accounts, charging for blue ticks in a move critics said would facilitate the spread of misinformation.

Mr Musk has acknowledged "massive" declines in revenue, though he told the BBC last month that companies were returning.