Elon Musk, the renowned tech mogul and owner of X (formerly Twitter), is facing a lawsuit from four former Twitter executives who were terminated immediately after the company’s $44 billion takeover in October 2022. The executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, ex-CFO Ned Segal, Vijaya Gadde, formerly head of legal, policy, trust, and safety, and former general counsel Sean Edgett, are collectively seeking $128 million in severance pay, claiming wrongful termination.
In a surprising turn of events, Musk, known for his love of internet memes, responded to the lawsuit with a series of emojis on X. When a user sarcastically mentioned Agrawal’s productivity during the week in question, Musk replied with the “face with tears of joy” emoji. He later responded to another user’s joke about Agrawal using a clown emoji for himself by saying, “If the emoji fits… ️.”
Despite the attention-grabbing emoji responses, a spokesperson for X declined to comment on the matter. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and references a passage from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk. The passage recounts Musk’s belief that he could fire Agrawal and the other executives for cause before their stock options vested if he closed the acquisition on October 27, 2022.
According to the lawsuit, Musk allegedly fired the executives without reason and then fabricated cause by appointing employees from his various companies to support his decision. The termination letters claimed that each plaintiff had committed “gross negligence” and “willful misconduct” without providing any supporting evidence. Musk’s employees reportedly spent a year attempting to find facts to support his predetermined conclusion but were unsuccessful.
The lawsuit seeks to hold Musk accountable for reneging on the severance benefits owed to the former executives. A copy of the lawsuit can be found via the New York Times.
In other news, Musk’s reign as the world’s richest person came to an end on Monday, with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos surpassing him in net worth. Bezos, with a fortune of $200 billion as of March 4, claimed the title, while Musk’s net worth stood at $198 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal.
As the legal battle unfolds, the outcome of the lawsuit will undoubtedly have significant implications for both Musk and the former Twitter executives. It remains to be seen how this high-profile case will play out in the courts and what impact it will have on Musk’s reputation and financial standing.
