NEW YORK :
Non-payment of severance totalling USD 128 million:
TWITTER’S former leadership
team, including ex-CEO Parag
Agrawal and Chief Legal Officer
Vijaya Gadde, has sued the platform’s owner Elon Musk, saying the billionaire fired them
without reason and owes them
severance payments worth
USD 128 million.
The lawsuit against the Tesla
and SpaceX chief and X Corp was filed in the US
District Court, Northern District of California by
Agrawal, Gadde, Twitter’s former Chief Financial
Officer Ned Segal and General Counsel Sean Edgett.
Musk has a “special ire” toward Agrawal, Segal,
Gadde, and Edgett, who in their leadership roles at
Twitter “appropriately and vigorously represented
the interests of Twitter’s public shareholders throughout Musk’s wrongful attempt to renege on the deal.
For their efforts,
Musk vowed a lifetime of revenge,” the
38-page lawsuit said.
Agrawal worked at Twitter from 2011
until 2022 and was the platform’s Chief
Executive Officer from November 29,
2021, until October 27, 2022, a role he
took over from the company’s founder
and former CEO Jack Dorsey.
The lawsuit also notes that as Musk
was closingTwitter’s acquisition for USD
44 billion in 2022, the billionaire told his
official biographerWalter Isaacson, that
he would “hunt every single one of”
Twitter’s executives and directors “till
the day they die.” “These statements
were not the mere rantings of a self-centred billionaire surrounded by enablers
unwilling to confront him with the legal
consequences of his own choices. Musk
bragged to Isaacson specifically how he
planned to cheat Twitter’s executives out
of their severance benefits in order to
save himself USD 200 million,” he said.
The four former Twitter executives
claim in the lawsuit that Musk owes
them severance payments totalling
about USD 128 million. “Under Musk’s
control, Twitter has become a scofflaw,
stiffing employees, landlords, vendors,
and others. Musk doesn’t pay his bills,
believes the rules don’t apply to him, and
uses his wealth and power to run
roughshod over anyone who disagrees
with him,” the lawsuit said.
It said that Agrawal is entitled to severance benefits amounting to over USD
57 million, which is equal to his oneyear salary of one million dollars plus
restricted stock units, performance share
units and other benefits. Gadde is entitled to severance benefits in the amount
of USD 20 million, an amount equal to
one year’s salary of USD 6,00,000 plus
other benefits.
The lawsuit alleges that underTwitter’s
severance plans if an eligible executive
is terminated without cause following a
change in control, they are entitled to
severance benefits.