Strains between billionaire tech magnate and his CEOhas been mounting as the platform’s financial health has continually struggled

X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who is under immense pressure exerted by company owner Elon Musk to slash costs and increase revenues, has shaken up her inner circle at the company. X is undergoing such internal changes that Yaccarino fired Joe Benarroch (Yaccarino’s right-hand man and head of business operations and communications) this very month, some people familiar with the matter said.Among other things, Yaccarino held Benarroch liable for unprofessional roll-out of the platform’s new adult content policy by failing to inform clients of the alterations before it became public, two X employees said.

Taking over Benarroch’s duties will be global government affairs head Nick Pickles, whose role has for the time being been expanded to include directing all global communications. Just this week, Nick, one of the very few top Twitter staffers who survived the tech magnate’s takeover, attended the Cannes advertising festival alongside Muskand Yaccarino for the first time, several people stated.The shake-up is being seen as a boon for British-born Nick, who once even ran for office as a Conservative MP in the UK, before quickly rising up the ranks at the social media platform to oversee its public policy and dealings with governments.

Musk had poached Yaccarino from NBCUniversal but she failed to steady X’s financial health even a year after joining. This has resulted in growing tensions between Musk and Yaccarino, and eventually this reshuffle. One X senior staffer divulged that Yaccarino had become increasingly nervous as Musk mounted pressure on her to increase revenues and lower her outgoings – for instance cutting staff from the US and UK sales teams and reducing expenditure on items such as travel.Another staffer said that some recent staff losses were linked to regular performance management reviews. At a meeting this month, Yaccarino stressedthat there would be a focus on “performance management”, divulged people inside the company.

Concurrent to theYaccarino’s changes, billionaire brought in Steve Davis (a long-standing ally of Musk and chief executive of his Boring Company) in April to review X’s finances as well as performance management, divulged two people familiar with the matter. Davis has been relying on assessment to identify low performersand is targeting dozens of jobs. The move to bring in Davis was seen by some as a sign of the constant worries about the platform’s finances.