Elon Musk Settles Lawsuit with Former Twitter Executives
Elon Musk and his company, X Corporation, have come to an agreement in a lawsuit filed by four former executives of Twitter, who alleged they were owed $128 million in severance packages after Musk’s acquisition of the platform.
According to a report, the plaintiffs, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, claimed they had not received the severance payments promised to them prior to Musk’s takeover in 2022. The lawsuit suggests that Musk was motivated by a desire to save money and sought revenge by creating false reasons to terminate the executives, thereby avoiding the obligation to pay out their severance.
The complaint notes Musk’s strategy, as detailed in Walter Isaacson’s biography, where he openly discusses how he planned to avoid paying severance by fabricating termination causes. This has raised serious questions about his approach to leadership and corporate governance.
The executives contend that Musk unjustly accused them of “gross negligence” and “willful misconduct” in their dismissal letters, which they assert were tactics to deny them their rightful severance pay. The lawsuit claims this behavior was an excuse to eliminate their retirement benefits while also saving him costs.
The settlement terms were filed in a San Francisco federal court last week, but specific details remain confidential. A federal judge has delayed the filing deadline and hearing to give both parties time to finalize the agreement.
This lawsuit adds to the legal challenges Musk has faced since acquiring Twitter for $44 billion, now rebranded as Company X. Earlier this year, Company X also settled another lawsuit from regular Twitter employees who claimed a total of $500 million in unpaid severance following mass layoffs.
The plaintiffs in this recent lawsuit, alongside Agrawal, include former Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and former General Counsel Sean Edgitt. Edgitt’s claims highlight that Musk falsely accused him of fraud, further complicating the narrative surrounding their departures.
Former executives argue they were deprived of long-promised severance packages, each stating they are owed a full year’s salary and stock options that amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
