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4 former Twitter executives sued Elon Musk on Monday, accusing the billionaire of withholding severance funds value $128 million after he fired them from the corporate throughout his 2022 takeover.
When Mr. Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion, he fired Parag Agrawal, its chief govt; Ned Segal, its chief monetary officer; Vijaya Gadde, its head of authorized and coverage; and Sean Edgett, its basic counsel. Mr. Musk later renamed the corporate X.
The executives had clauses of their contracts stipulating that they might obtain severance if Twitter was now not a public firm — so when Mr. Musk took the corporate non-public in October 2022, they have been entitled to the funds, the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of California, claims. The severance included one yr’s wage plus unvested inventory awards.
Mr. Agrawal’s annual wage was $1 million, and he was awarded $12.5 million in inventory that was scheduled to vest incrementally, in keeping with his supply letter for the function. Within the occasion of an involuntary termination, Mr. Agrawal was entitled to a so-called golden parachute cost of $60 million, in keeping with a Twitter securities submitting. Underneath those self same circumstances, Mr. Segal would obtain $46 million and Ms. Gadde $21 million, in keeping with the submitting.
On the time of the takeover, Mr. Musk mentioned he might fireplace the executives “for trigger” to keep away from paying them severance. He instructed his biographer, Walter Isaacson, that he would deny the executives’ severance funds, saving himself about $200 million. He instructed Mr. Isaacson that he would “hunt” the executives “until the day they die.”
Attorneys for the executives wrote in courtroom paperwork: “That is the Musk playbook: to maintain the cash he owes different individuals, and power them to sue him. Even in defeat, Musk can impose delay, problem and expense on others much less in a position to afford it.”
The executives beforehand sued Mr. Musk for authorized charges they incurred whereas responding to investigations into the corporate. In October, a Delaware decide ordered Mr. Musk to pay them $1.1 million to cowl these bills.
A consultant for X declined to remark. A lawyer for Mr. Musk didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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