Elon Musk loses legal bid to evade severance payments to former Twitter executives.
Elon Musk faces a legal setback in his attempt to avoid severance payments to Twitter’s former top executives, fired during his 2022 takeover of the company. On Friday, a judge ruled that former CEO Parag Agrawal, along with other top executives, can proceed with their claims that Elon Musk terminated them right as the deal closed to avoid paying severance.
In a lawsuit filed in March, the executives argued that Musk intentionally cut them off before they could formally resign, denying them agreed-upon compensation. The suit also referenced a statement Musk made to biographer Walter Isaacson, revealing that Musk was eager to close the deal to avoid “a $200 million differential in the cookie jar between closing tonight and doing it tomorrow morning.”
Agrawal is joined in the case by Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former legal chief; Ned Segal, former CFO; and Sean Edgett, former general counsel, who all allege that they are owed one year’s salary plus unvested stock awards valued at the acquisition price.