Elon Musk has agreed to settle a $128 million lawsuit filed by four of Twitter’s former top executives, now under his company X. The dispute focused on severance payments the executives said were wrongfully withheld after Musk’s 2022 takeover.
Ousted executives say Musk acted without justification
The executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, argued that Musk dismissed them “without reason” and ignored their contractual rights. In a recent court filing, their lawyers wrote, “The parties have reached a settlement, and the settlement requires certain conditions to be met in the near term.” They did not reveal the settlement terms. The case, filed last year, is one of several lawsuits tied to unpaid severance following Musk’s leadership shake-up.
Legal teams keep negotiations confidential
Lawyers representing the former executives, Musk, and X declined to comment 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 a long-established severance plan. They accused Musk of intentionally avoiding payments due to former employees.
Thousands of ex-workers also received settlements
In August, Musk and X settled another lawsuit involving roughly 6,000 former employees. Those workers claimed they were owed $500 million in unpaid severance. Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion after attempting to walk away from the deal. Once the acquisition was finalized, he swiftly removed the top executives and cut more than half of the company’s workforce.
Lawsuit claims Musk sought to punish former leaders
The former executives said Musk was furious about being forced to complete the $44 billion deal. They accused him of falsely alleging misconduct to justify firing them and avoiding their payouts. The settlement closes another major legal chapter in Musk’s controversial ownership of X, the platform that once shaped global online debate.
