Another day, another big news in the tech world involving Elon Musk and X. Four former Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, head of legal Vijaya Gadde, and General Counsel Sean Edgett sues Musk on Monday, seeking $128 million in severance pay. This lawsuit was filed in a California court and alleges breach of contract and wrongful termination, escalating tensions between the social media giant and the tech world.
This recent Sue move seems to be some old tension between Musk and a former Twitter executive because when Musk bought Twitter (now X), one of his very first moves was to remove Agerwal, CFO NED Segal, and lawyers Sean Edgett and Vijaya Gadde. According to this lawsuit, Musk did not like these former executives. They worked hard to ensure that Musk stuck to his promise of buying Twitter for $44 billion when he tried to back out. This lawsuit quotes Walter Lsaacson’s biography of Elon Musk, which quotes Musk as saying
“Hunt every single one” of Twitter’s C-suite “till the day they die”.
Musk has strongly criticized Vijaya Gadde especially, who made important decisions about what content should be allowed on Twitter. After he tried to buy Twitter, he posted memes making fun of her, which led to many racist attacks against her online.
It’s not just executives who have not been paid their severance pay. Musk is facing lawsuits from other former Twitter employees who are waiting for their money. Since Musk took over, Twitter has stopped paying rent for some offices, leading to even more legal battles and evictions.
The lawsuit says that Musk claimed that this executive of doing “gross negligence” and willful misconduct” in their termination letters, but failed to show any proof. The lawsuit says this is typical of Musk’s behavior: he does not want to pay what he owes, and he makes people go to court to get it. Even in defeat, Musk can impose delay, hassle, and expense on others less able to afford it. This recent Sue of Musk Creates a great tension on social media.