X CEO Linda Yaccarino has reportedly reshuffled her inner circle amid pressure to reduce costs.
As the Financial Times (FT) reported Sunday (June 23), three sources say that Yaccarino fired head of business operations and communications Joe Benarroch — described as her right-hand man — earlier this month.
Two of the sources say that — among other things — she blamed Benarroch for fumbling the launch of X’s new adult content policy by failing to inform customers of the changes before they were publicized.
Taking over Benarroch’s duties will be global government affairs head Nick Pickles, whose role has — for the time being — been beefed up to include overseeing all global communications, the sources said.
The FT noted that the changes come amid rising tension between Yaccarino and X owner Elon Musk one year after the multibillionaire recruited her from NBCUniversal.
One X senior staffer told the FT she had become increasingly nervous as Musk piled pressure on her to boost revenues and reduce her expenses — for example letting go staff from the U.S. and U.K. sales teams and cutting spending on things like travel.
Meanwhile, Steve Davis, CEO of Musk’ Boring Company, has also been brought in to examine X’s finances and performance management, said two of the sources.
PYMNTS has contacted X for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.
The news comes on the heels of a report from last week that X was gearing up for a multiyear campaign to get its payments business off the ground, according to documents obtained last week by Bloomberg Businessweek.
According to those documents, X is envisioning a digital dashboard on its website and mobile app that will act as a hub for all payments activity, allowing users to send and receive money, store funds and view past transactions.
The company will levy small fees for some transactions, it said in a business plan filed with regulators in Massachusetts last summer.
“However, Twitter Payments does not anticipate charging fees for all of its Services, as the overall goal of the Services is to help increase participation and engagement on the X Platform,” the company wrote.
Musk had said during a call with employees last year that he foresaw X becoming a payments super app by the end of this year.
“If it involves money, it’ll be on our platform,” he said. “Money or securities or whatever. So, it’s not just like sending $20 to my friend. I’m talking about, like, you won’t need a bank account.”
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