New Delhi: When Elon Musk acquired Twitter, he introduced major changes, rebranding the platform as “X” and restructuring the company. Former CEO Parag Agrawal, along with a few other senior executives, was asked to leave, prompting Agrawal and the others to file a lawsuit against Musk.
Now, the court has ruled that Parag Agrawal and other former top executives can legally pursue their claims against Musk.
Reports indicate Musk allegedly dismissed these executives soon after his takeover to avoid paying their severance packages.
The judge is also handling another case from Nicholas Caldwell, Twitter’s former core tech general manager, who seeks $20 million in lost severance compensation.
On the same day, the judge rejected Musk’s lawyers’ request to dismiss Caldwell’s claims, as reported by Bloomberg.
With this decision, Parag Agrawal and other former executives, including Vijaya Gadde (former chief legal officer), Ned Segal (former chief financial officer), and Sean Edgett (former general counsel), have the green light to sue Musk over their dismissals.
The executives allege that Musk strategically terminated them before they could officially resign to deny them promised compensation, including one year’s salary and unvested stock valued at the acquisition price.
In their lawsuit, they reference Musk’s statement to his biographer, Walter Isaacson, where he expressed urgency to finalize the deal, stating, “a $200 million differential in the cookie jar between closing tonight and doing it tomorrow morning.”
They further accuse Musk of manufacturing reasons for their dismissal to evade severance obligations.
The executives said, “Musk uses his wealth and power to bulldoze anyone who opposes him, doesn’t pay his bills, and thinks the rules don’t apply to him.”
Since taking over Twitter, now X Corp., Musk has faced a series of legal disputes, especially over employee compensation, while implementing widespread layoffs as part of an extensive company overhaul.
