Elon Musk has reached an agreement to settle a $128 million lawsuit brought by four of Twitter’s former top executives, now part of his company X. The dispute centered on severance payments the executives claimed Musk refused to pay after his 2022 takeover.
Executives say Musk fired them without cause
The executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, argued that Musk dismissed them unfairly and denied them the severance owed under their contracts. In a court filing, their lawyers said, “The parties have reached a settlement, and the settlement requires certain conditions to be met in the near term.” The filing did not disclose the settlement’s financial terms. The lawsuit, filed last year, is one of several challenges Musk has faced over unpaid severance after his acquisition of the platform.
Legal teams decline to comment
Lawyers representing Musk, X, and the former executives have not responded to requests for comment on the deal. The four executives—Agrawal, former chief financial officer Ned Segal, former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and former general counsel Sean Edgett—said they were each owed a year’s salary and stock awards under a long-standing severance plan. They accused Musk of repeatedly avoiding payments due to former staff.
Thousands of former employees also filed claims
In August, Musk and X settled a separate lawsuit involving around 6,000 former employees. Those workers said they were collectively owed $500 million in severance pay. Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion after trying to withdraw his offer. Once the purchase was complete, he quickly fired the top leadership team and cut more than half of the company’s workforce.
Anger over forced takeover fueled conflict
The executives alleged that Musk was furious about being forced to finalize the $44 billion deal. They said he falsely accused them of misconduct to justify their termination and to avoid paying what he owed. The settlement concludes another chapter in Musk’s turbulent leadership of X, marking the end of one of his most public corporate disputes.
