BREAKING: Linda Yaccarino leaves NBC amid talks to replace Elon Musk as Twitter CEO

Yaccarino, who served as the media giant's head of advertising, said in a statement that it had been an "absolute honor" to work for the company, but did not explain why she had quit, nor where her next placement would be.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Yaccarino made the announcement Friday morning, just days before the company's annual "upfront," where execs pitch to potential advertisers.

She had reportedly been in "back-to-back rehearsals" for the event in the days leading up to her abrupt departure.

On Thursday, Elon Musk tweeted that he was "excited to announce that [he'd] hired a new CEO for X/Twitter," noting that, "she will be starting in ~6 weeks!"

Before long, a list of potential candidates was compiled by users, with Yaccarino among those perceived as potential front-runners.

In the hours since, her background has been scrutinized by both the right and the left, with the latter pointing out that she follows accounts such as the Babylon Bee and Catturd, and the former drawing attention to her ties with the World Economic Forum.

According to her LinkedIn, Yaccarino has served as Chairman of the WEF's Taskforce on Future of Work since 2019, and sits on the WEF's Media, Entertainment and Culture Industry Governors Steering Committee. She is also "highly engaged with the Value in Media initiative."

Soon after Musk bought Twitter, he sat down with Yaccarino to discuss the company's future. During the interview, Yaccarino said that advertisers should work to turn Twitter into a place where they will be "excited about investing more money."

She suggested that advertisers should be involved in aspects of the company such as product development and content moderation.

Musk pushed back, saying it was "not cool" for advertisers to try and tell Twitter what to do, adding that his committment to free speech took priority over ad revenue.

In another clip making the rounds on Twitter, Yaccarino appears to be pushing for diversity, equity, and inclusion and "social justice" initiatives.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.