Former Twitter managers want compensation from Musk

A year and a half after the takeover of Twitter, the air is still thick between the ex-managers and the buyer Elon Musk. But it has certainly never been as thick as it is now. There is a huge amount of damages in the three-digit million range at stake.

Focus on the Twitter takeover

There was a global outcry when controversial tech billionaire Elon Musk moved into the executive suite at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco in October 2022. While users complained about the removal of important filter mechanisms, which opened the door to negative effects such as hate speech, the workforce suffered from Musk’s idiosyncratic management style. In the first few weeks after the takeover, the social network was hit by a veritable wave of redundancies. The management team around the then CEO Parag Agrawal was also affected. Together with three other ex-managers, the former CEO is now demanding a substantial severance payment from Musk. This demand is based on an unfounded reason for dismissal.

According to Musk, the managers should be dismissed due to “gross negligence” or even “deliberate misconduct”. What exactly he means by this is still up in the air. A sum of 128 million US dollars in damages is in the offing. Apparently, Elon Musk didn’t really do himself any favors with the sections on Twitter in his own biography. Here, the tech billionaire makes it clear once again that it was very important to him that the Twitter managers were dismissed as quickly as possible. Otherwise, he would have risked losing important share options.

How did the large total amount come about?

Of course, the 128 million US dollars is not just made up of salary compensation. The aforementioned share options also play a major role here. This is particularly clear in the case of Agrawal. The former CEO would actually be entitled to a severance payment of 1 million US dollars. This corresponds to his annual salary at the time. However, he is now demanding a total of over 57.36 million US dollars. The reason for this: the outstanding share options. The situation is no different for the three other managers, which is why the total sum is so high. We are curious to see how the dispute will end. Musk has so far remained silent on the matter.