Elon Musk encountered a major legal hurdle as a US judge ruled that claims brought by former Twitter Inc. executives regarding severance entitlements may proceed.
The court’s decision late on Friday permits former Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, along with top executives including Vijaya Gadde, Ned Segal, and Sean Edgett, to pursue compensation allegedly withheld during Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022.
This case centers on allegations that Musk dismissed these high-ranking officials as he finalized his $44 billion takeover, preempting their ability to resign and claim severance formally.
The lawsuit, filed by Agrawal and his fellow former executives in March, references a statement attributed to Musk in Walter Isaacson’s recent biography.
According to the biography, Musk is quoted as noting a “200-million differential in the cookie jar between closing tonight and doing it tomorrow morning,” suggesting urgency in his actions as he neared the Twitter acquisition’s…