Four former Twitter executives sued Elon Musk on Monday for a total of $128 million in unpaid severance more than a year after they were fired during the billionaire tech mogul’s takeover of the social-media company.
In a 56-page lawsuit filed with a California federal court, the four plaintiffs said Musk fired them due to gross negligence and willful misconduct, which they denied that they committed. When they were let go in October 2022, Musk said there was cause for their termination and that he didn’t have to pay them multimillion-dollar severance packages.
Seventeen months later, the top four ex-Twitter executives — CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, CLO Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett — are now taking their severance dispute with X’s owner to court.
“This is the Musk playbook: to keep the money he owes other people, and force them to sue him,” the suit states. “Even in defeat, Musk can impose delay, hassle, and expense on others less able to afford it.”
The court filing claims “Musk has a special ire toward” the executives after they clashed with him during his attempt to back out of the $44 billion acquisition. Musk followed through on the deal only after Twitter sued him at the time. “For their efforts, Musk vowed a lifetime of revenge,” the document reads, citing author Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk.
Musk told Isaacson he would “hunt every single one of” Twitter’s executives and directors “till the day they die,” according to the complaint.
It goes on to say that severance plans are important for corporate governance because they incentivize both executives and shareholders to finalize an acquisition deal.
“If executives could not count on getting their contractual severance, they would have no incentive to stay through the acquisition to run the business, oversee the acquisition process, and make sure the shareholders get paid,” lawyers for the executives wrote.
The plaintiffs’ requested amounts in severance benefits are as follows: $57.4 million for Agrawal, $44.5 million for Segal, $20 million for Gadde, and $6.8 million for Edgett.
“Because Musk decided he didn’t want to pay Plaintiffs’ severance benefits, he simply fired them without reason, then made up fake cause and appointed employees of his various companies to uphold his decision,” the lawyers said.
The complaint lists the defendants as Musk, X Corp., and three of Musk’s employees who were involved in the decision to deny the severance payments over a year ago. The three other people, two of whom work at SpaceX and the other who was previously employed by Tesla before joining X, served on the Twitter Severance Administration Committee.