A group of former Twitter executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, are judicial Elon Musk and X over millions of dollars in unpaid severance pay. The claims date back to the chaotic circumstances surrounding Musk’s takeover of the company in October 2022.
When Musk took control of the company, he had to fire Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Chief Legal Officer Vijay Gade and General Counsel Sean Edgett. According to the lawsuit, Musk has “particular anger” toward the group because of the role they played in the months-long legal battle that forced Musk to go through with the acquisition after he tried to back out of the deal. According to the suit, Agrawal is entitled to $57.4 million in severance pay, Segal is entitled to $44.5 million, Gade $20 million and Edget $6.8 million, for a total of about $128 million.
The lawsuit quotes Musk’s biographer Walter Isaacson of the events as explaining that Musk rushed to close the Twitter deal a day early so he could fire executives “for cause” just before their final stock options vested. According to Isaacson, Musk boasted that the legal maneuver saved him about $200 million.
“Musk doesn’t pay his bills, believes the rules don’t apply to him, and uses his wealth and power to crack down on anyone who disagrees with him.” the case states, “Since Musk decided he didn’t want to pay the plaintiffs severance, he simply fired them for no reason, then made up a fake cause and appointed employees of his various companies to support his decision.”
X did not respond to a request for comment on the case. It should be noted that this is not the first time that former Twitter employees have sued the company for non-payment of severance benefits. A separate lawsuit claims Twitter owes former workers more than in case of unpaid compensation. Agrawal, Segal and Gadde are also the company for unpaid legal bills resulting from shareholder suits and other investigations that resulted from the Musk takeover.
https://www.engadget.com/twitters-former-ceo-and-other-execs-are-suing-elon-musk-and-x-for-128-million-in-unpaid-severance-231428042.html?src=rss
