Recently Elon Musk fired top Twitter executives, former CEO Parag Agrawal and chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde after taking over Twitter. While Twitter’s filing with the US SEC shows that Musk needs to pay more than $100 million to the fired leaders as part of his exit deal, it looks like the new boss has found a way to avoid the payment of severance pay and other compensation. Twitter’s earlier filing with the SEC shows that Parag Agrawal is entitled to receive around $67 million (approximately Rs 552 crore). Gadde is eligible to receive $54.7 million (approximately Rs 450 crore).
According to a new report, Elon Musk has fired top Twitter executives Agrawal and Gadde “for cause” in an obvious effort to avoid severance pay and other awards. If true, the 51-year-old billionaire could soon face another legal matter from executives fired over his severance pay.
The report comes from The Information, and in a separate tweet, Rich Greenfield, LightShed analyst, weighed in on the matter. Greenfield said in a tweet: “Elon Musk fired top Twitter executives ‘for cause,’ preventing his non-vested shares from being acquired as part of a change of control. The report highlights Musk firing top Twitter superiors before November 1 to avoid paying them the unvested shares and severance pay.
Interestingly, Musk has denied laying off more Twitter workers before November 1 to avoid paying stock grants to laid-off employees. Simultaneously, he tweeted about the messy work structure within Twitter, showing that he could soon restructure teams. Some Twitter employees may lose their jobs as part of the restructuring process.
If Musk denies paying severance and other stock awards to the fired leaders, he could face another legal issue. In this case, he could end up paying the same amount suggested by the SEC filing. Or both parties could negotiate and reduce the amount to a more friendly figure.