Former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, along with three other former employees, has sued Elon Musk for not paying USD 128 million worth of severance.
New Delhi,UPDATED: Mar 5, 2024 16:25 IST
In a widely discussed transaction in October 2022, Elon Musk took control of Twitter (now called X). Among his initial actions as the new owner was the termination of then-CEO Parag Agrawal. Musk also dismissed several other high-ranking executives, leading to a substantial workforce reduction with thousands losing their jobs. The platform has undergone significant changes under Musk's leadership and is no longer what it was over a year back. Ever since Parag Agrawal was ousted as the company's CEO, there have been ample discussions surrounding his exit. Musk has too, on various occasions, talked about the former Twitter chief. More recently, it was reported that Agrawal was fired because he refused to block an account on Twitter that Musk wanted.
Now, Agrawal, along with three other former Twitter executives, has sued Musk for not paying millions dollars worth of severance. Here is the full story, in five points.
1. Four ex-Twitter executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, sued Elon Musk in a joint lawsuit. The former Twitter executives are seeking over USD 128 million in unpaid severance.
2. The lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco federal court on Monday. The other executives involved in the case are Twitter's former CFO Ned Segal, former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and Sean Edgett, former general counsel.
3. The executives, as per the lawsuit, claim they were fired by Musk just minutes after he took control. They further alleged that Musk falsely accused them of misconduct and forced them out after they sued him for attempting to back out of the Twitter purchase.
4. The lawsuit also alleges that Musk denied the promised severance pay to the executives, amounting to one year's salary and hundreds of thousands of stock options each. The former executives describe this as part of "the Musk playbook" to withhold owed money and compel legal action. "This is the Musk playbook: to keep the money he owes other people, and force them to sue him," the former executives said in the lawsuit, as per a Reuters report.
5. This isn't the only legal battle that X is fighting. The company is already dealing with proposed class actions seeking USD 500 million in severance for laid-off workers and another lawsuit by six former senior managers with similar claims. X denies any wrongdoing and has faced previous legal issues related to payments to its PR firm, landlords, vendors, and consultants.
Published By:
Divyanshi Sharma
Published On:
Mar 5, 2024
English (US) ·