Elon Musk has reached a settlement in a $128 million lawsuit filed by four former senior executives of Twitter, now rebranded as X. The dispute focused on severance payments the executives said Musk refused to provide after his 2022 takeover.
Former executives say they were dismissed unfairly
The executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, argued that Musk fired them without cause and denied the severance guaranteed in their contracts. In a court filing, their lawyers wrote, “The parties have reached a settlement, and the settlement requires certain conditions to be met in the near term.” The financial terms of the settlement remain confidential. The lawsuit, filed last year, is one of several legal challenges regarding unpaid severance after Musk’s acquisition.
Lawyers remain silent on the agreement
Attorneys for both Musk and the former executives have not commented on the settlement. The plaintiffs—Agrawal, former chief financial officer Ned Segal, former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, and former general counsel Sean Edgett—said they were each owed one year’s salary and stock awards under an established severance plan. They accused Musk of systematically avoiding payments owed to employees who were let go.
Thousands of employees previously filed claims
In August, Musk and X also settled a lawsuit involving around 6,000 former employees who claimed they were collectively owed $500 million in severance. Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion after initially attempting to back out of the deal. Once the sale closed, he quickly removed the top executives and cut more than half of the workforce.
Executives claim Musk acted out of frustration
The former leaders alleged Musk was angry about being forced to complete the $44 billion acquisition. They said he falsely accused them of misconduct to justify firing them and avoid paying their severance. The settlement closes another high-profile legal dispute in Musk’s management of X and highlights the lasting effects of his sweeping corporate changes.
