Elon Musk settles $128 million severance lawsuit with former Twitter executives including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal

Elon Musk, along with his company X Corp, has come to an agreement with four former high-ranking Twitter executives, including the ex-CEO Parag Agrawal. These executives claimed they were wrongfully denied $128 million in severance pay following Musk's acquisition of the social media platform in 2022. The settlement, confirmed in a recent filing with a federal court in San Francisco, marks the conclusion of a significant legal battle stemming from Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter. Details of the settlement remain undisclosed, though it has been reported that a federal judge has delayed upcoming filing deadlines and a scheduled hearing to finalize the terms. The plaintiffs in this case include Agrawal, Ned Segal, the former Chief Financial Officer, Vijaya Gadde, the former Chief Legal Officer, and Sean Edgett, who served as the General Counsel. They argued that their dismissals were unjust and lacked the severance and stock options they were entitled to under their contracts. The executives asserted that Musk had made unfounded allegations of misconduct against them after they filed a lawsuit in 2022, when he attempted to back out of the Twitter deal. According to their claims, each executive was owed one year’s salary along with significant stock options that were denied after Musk took control of the company. X Corp and Musk countered these claims, stating that the executives were let go due to inadequate performance. This settlement follows another case from August, where X Corp resolved a lawsuit from former Twitter employees who alleged they were owed $500 million in unpaid severance after mass layoffs. Since taking over Twitter, Musk has encountered numerous legal and financial hurdles as he attempts to transform the platform into X, which includes significant workforce reductions and a bold rebranding strategy aimed at creating an 'everything app.'