Elon Musk and Former Twitter Executives Reach Settlement in $128 Million Severance Dispute

Elon Musk terminated Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal's position immediately following his acquisition of the platform.

Elon Musk and X Corp (formerly Twitter) have reached an agreement to resolve a $128 million lawsuit initiated by former CEO Parag Agrawal and three other senior executives who claimed they were denied their severance packages.

The settlement terms remained confidential in the September 30 federal court filing, which extended case deadlines and postponed a scheduled hearing in San Francisco.

"The parties have reached a settlement and the settlement requires certain conditions to be met in the near term," stated an attorney representing the executives in the filing.

This resolution follows another settlement agreement from August between Musk and X Corp officials regarding a $500 million lawsuit filed by approximately 6,000 laid-off employees who alleged the billionaire denied them severance payments after taking over the social media company.

Representatives for X and Musk did not provide immediate comments when contacted Tuesday regarding the settlement. Similarly, legal counsel for the former executives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Musk acquired Twitter in 2022 after abandoning efforts to back out of his $44 billion takeover offer when a Delaware judge, where Twitter was incorporated at the time, ruled against him in several pre-trial decisions.

Upon taking control, Musk immediately dismissed several top-ranking Twitter executives. Joining Agrawal in the lawsuit were Vijaya Gadde, the former chief legal and policy officer; Ned Segal, the company's former chief financial officer; and Sean Edgett, Twitter's former general counsel who now holds the same position at Match Group.

Twitter, which Musk rebranded as X, faced multiple lawsuits alleging labor and workplace violations, including claims of failing to provide severance to thousands of terminated employees.

Last month, a federal judge in Delaware dismissed portions of a severance class-action lawsuit brought by former Twitter employees alleging wage theft by Musk, ruling that the billionaire could not be held liable as an "alter ego" of the company.

The California case is identified as Agrawal v. Musk, 24-cv-01304, in the US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).