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Lawsuits against Elon Musk’s X are coming from left and right. In one of the recent cases, the company’s former executives have filed a lawsuit, demanding roughly $128 million in severance payments. These executives were laid off after Musk took over the Twitter platform (later rebranded to X) in 2022.
Following Musk’s takeover, he drastically changed Twitter by firing the company’s top executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and general counsel Sean Edgett. The lawsuit claims that Musk had a “special ire” against these executives because of their role in the billionaire’s legal battle with Twitter when he wanted to cancel the deal.
X should pay roughly $128 million in severance payments to its former executives
As the lawsuit reads, these executives have not yet received their severance payment from their former company. The total payment is around $128 million. Parag Agrawal demands $57.4 million in severance payments, while Segal’s payments are $44.5 million.
Gadde and Edgett are also entitled to $20 million and $6.8 million in severance benefits, respectively. Agrawal, Segal, and Gadde have also filed a separate lawsuit against Musk over some unpaid legal bills.
Plaintiffs also accuse Elon Musk of making up a “fake cause” to lay them off and avoid paying severance payments. Additionally, Twitter’s former executives cited a story from Musk’s biographer, Walter Isaacson. He revealed in his book that Musk was in a rush to close Twitter’s deal a day early.
This was supposedly because the billionaire aimed to fire those executives “for cause” before they could use their stock options to stay longer at the company. As Isaacson says, this tactic saved Musk around $200 million.
X’s unpaid severance benefits could exceed $628 million
“Musk doesn’t pay his bills, believes the rules don’t apply to him, and uses his wealth and power to run roughshod over anyone who disagrees with him,” the lawsuit notes. “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.”
X is also facing another lawsuit from its former employees over unpaid severance. This lawsuit is said to be up to $500 million.