Former Twitter executives are suing Elon Musk for $128 million

Four former Twitter executives sued Elon Musk on Monday, accusing the billionaire of withholding severance payments worth $128 million after firing them from the company during his 2022 takeover.

When Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, he fired Parag Agrawal, the CEO; Ned Segal, chief financial officer; Vijaya Gadde, head of legal and policy; and Sean Edgett, general counsel. Mr. Musk later renamed the company X.

The executives had clauses in their contracts stating that they could receive severance pay if Twitter was no longer a publicly traded company – so when Mr Musk took the company private in October 2022, they were entitled to the payments, the court case, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges. The severance package included one year’s salary plus unvested stock awards.

At the time of the acquisition, Mr. Musk said he could fire the executives “for cause” to avoid paying them severance pay. Mr. Musk told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, that he would refuse executive severance packages, saving him about $200 million. He told Mr. Isaacson that he would “hunt” the executives until the day they die.

Lawyers for the executives wrote in court documents: “This is Musk’s playbook: keep the money he owes other people and force them to sue him. Even if he is defeated, Musk can impose delays, hassles and costs on others who cannot afford them.”

The executives previously sued Musk over legal fees incurred while responding to investigations into the company. In October, a Delaware judge ruled Mr. Musk ordered to pay them $1.1 million to cover those costs.

A representative for X and a lawyer for Mr. Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.