Elon Musk has dismissed four top executives at Twitter “for cause” in order to avoid having to pay them eight-figure severance packages, according to a report.
Immediately after completing the acquisition of Twitter on Thursday, Musk fired four top executives at the site — CEO Parag Agrawal; CFO Ned Segal; Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde; and General Counsel Sean Edgett.
Musk reportedly terminated the executives “for cause” — which would void a clause in their contract that entitles them to payouts worth tens of millions of dollars in severance and unvested stock options, according to reports on Saturday by the New York Times and the Information.
The research firm Equilar told Reuters on Friday that Agrawal, Segal, and Gadde are in line to receive golden parachutes worth a total of some $122 million.
Equilar, which researches executive compensation, estimates that Agrawal’s exit payout will total some $57.4 million while Segal will collect $44.5 million after his termination.
Gadde, who has become a lightning rod of controversy due to her reported role in aggressively policing Twitter’s platform and banning users who run afoul of content moderation rules, is scheduled to receive a $20 million payout, according to Equilar.
Musk also denied a report that he was planning to initiate mass layoffs at Twitter before a Tuesday deadline in order to avoid having to pay out severance in the form of stock grants.
Musk on Sunday reacted to a Twitter user who posted a snippet of a New York Times story that claimed the new boss is aiming to hand out pink slips before employees’ year-end compensations “kicks in on Tuesday.”
“This is false,” Musk tweeted in response to the post.
The Times reported over the weekend that Musk has ordered job cuts across the board at Twitter. Prior to Musk officially taking over Twitter, a report indicated that he planned to lay off as much as 75% of the 7,500-member workforce.
But Musk reportedly told employees at the company’s San Francisco headquarters last week that there were no such plans.
Most observers believe that the fired executives will, if necessary, take legal action in an effort to force Musk to follow through on the exit payments.
The Post has sought comment from Twitter.
In the weeks and months leading up to his takeover of Twitter, Musk made no secret of his disdain for the old management team.
In the spring, when Musk began buying up shares of Twitter, he began dialogue with Agrawal at a time when it appeared the Tesla CEO would be joining the company’s board of directors.
But Musk decided that he would buy the company outright and take it private, tweeting: “Is Twitter dying?”
Musk’s public criticism of Twitter’s management soured his relationship with Agrawal. The two publicly bickered over Musk’s claim that Twitter was undercounting the number of spam and bot accounts that were prevalent on the site.
When Agrawal posted a tweet thread defending Twitter’s efforts to limit spam and bot accounts, Musk responded with a poop emoji.
The acrimony escalated when Musk tried to back out of the $44 billion acquisition — prompting Twitter to sue in Delaware Court of Chancery.
Musk’s bleak prospects of winning in court likely forced him to accept the terms of the merger earlier this month — resulting in his taking over of Twitter.
