Parag Agrawal and Ex-Twitter Executives File Lawsuit Against Elon Musk Over Severance Dispute
The former CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, together with three other executives who were dismissed following the acquisition of Twitter by Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, have filed a lawsuit against him. They are seeking $128 million in unpaid severance, reported the Wall Street Journal.
Former Twitter Leadership, Including Parag Agrawal, Takes Legal Stand Against Musk
The lawsuit was filed jointly by the four former executives in the San Francisco federal court on Monday, 04 March 2024. Besides former CEO Parag Agrawal, the other three executives are former General Counsel Sean Edgett, former Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde, and former CFO Ned Segal.
The charges against Musk in the lawsuit include falsely accusing the executives of misconduct and then firing them after the executives sued Musk for attempting to back out of acquiring Twitter.
It is alleged that Musk was particularly irked by these former executives who worked hard to ensure that Musk adhered to his original commitment of $44 billion when he tried to back out of the deal.
The lawsuit also quoted a line from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk, in which he promised to hunt every member of the Twitter C-suite until the end of his life.
The lawsuit further charged Musk with not giving them the severance pay, which amounted to one year’s salary along with stock options for each. The lawsuit also stated that Musk used the ploy of not paying the dues to force them to seek legal action.
X is facing a slew of lawsuits, including a class-action lawsuit demanding USD 500 million in severance for laid-off workers. Another lawsuit filed by six former executives also made similar charges of not being paid their dues. X has also faced lawsuits related to payments to its PR firm, landlords, vendors, and consultants.
Twitter was acquired by Elon Musk in October 2022, and among the first actions taken by Musk was to hand pink slips to CEO Parag Agrawal and a number of high-ranking executives. In his bid to streamline the social media platform and trim expenses, Musk started a massive reduction in manpower, and thousands of employees lost their employment. In a year since changing hands, Twitter, which is now renamed X, has undergone a major transformation.
Ever since the ouster of CEO Parag Agrawal, there have been many stories about the circumstances leading to his ouster. It is rumored that Parag did not approve of the slew of retrenchments proposed by Musk.
Another rumor is that Parag refused to block an account on Twitter that Musk wanted.
