Four high-level Twitter executives whom Elon Musk immediately fired after taking over Twitter are suing for what they say is $128 million in unpaid severance, a lawsuit that claims Musk said he would “hunt” those executives “until the day they die.”
It’s been an ongoing characteristic of the company formerly called Twitter, and now called X under the Elon Musk regime, that the company avoids paying its bills. The landlord for X’s Market Street headquarters is suing for millions in unpaid rent, and even King Charles of England’s estate is suing Musk over unpaid rent. And in a not-at-all surprising event, many of the thousands of people Musk laid off got much smaller severance offers than expected, or no severance at all.
But some of these laid-off former Twitter employees are quite wealthy, and can afford to go after Musk with good attorneys. As such, the New York Times reports that four top-level executives that Musk fired are suing for $128 million in unpaid severance. The four executives are former CEO Parag Agrawal, deposed CFO Ned Segal, the fired legal executive Vijaya Gadde, and former General Counsel Sean Edgett.
Musk apparently thought he was pulling a fast one by saying he was firing the four of them for “cause” immediately after his takeover took effect in October 2022, figuring therefore he would not owe them their golden parachute packages. But the four executives apparently had clauses in their contract that they were owed unvested stock rewards if the company were ever taken private, which is what Musk did.
The Times has the full lawsuit filing, which contains the delicious detail that Musk had apparently said he would “hunt every single one of” those fired executives “until the day they die.” (But hey, maybe he can claim he was just quoting a Tupac lyric).
“This is the Musk playbook,” attorneys for the fired executives wrote in their legal filing. “To keep the money he owes other people, and force them to sue him. Even in defeat, Musk can impose delay, hassle and expense on others less able to afford it.”
Two of the executives, Agrawal and Gadde, already won a $1.1 legal settlement against Musk in October for failing to pay their legal fees when they were forced to testify in front of Congress. But obviously, this $128 million case is far more substantial.
Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 24: A building tenant looks out a window after letters were removed by workers from the Twitter sign that is posted on the exterior of Twitter headquarters on July 24, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Workers began removing the letters from the sign outside Twitter headquarters less than 24 hours after CEO Elon Musk officially rebranded Twitter as "X" and has changed its iconic bird logo, the biggest change he has made since taking over the social media platform. San Francisco police halted the sign removal shortly after it began. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
