"Pay 170 Billion Won in Severance"…Former Twitter Executives Sue Musk

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla

Former executives of Twitter, the predecessor of the social networking service X, have filed a retirement pay lawsuit worth approximately 170 billion KRW against Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who acquired Twitter, and the company.

On the 4th (local time), according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Bloomberg News, four senior executives, including Parag Agrawal, who was the CEO of Twitter at the time Musk acquired the company, filed a lawsuit demanding a total of $128 million (about 170.6 billion KRW) against Musk and others at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

They claimed that after Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022, they were unfairly dismissed, and that Musk had promised substantial compensation such as stocks as part of the acquisition agreement but failed to honor it.

The demanded retirement pay includes one year's salary, stock compensation calculated at $54.2 per share, health insurance fees, and other amounts.

Musk's side did not respond to requests for comment regarding this lawsuit.

After acquiring Twitter, Musk laid off about 75% of all employees and has been sued multiple times by other employees as well.

Last year, in a lawsuit filed by Mark Shovinger, the former chief compensation officer of Twitter, demanding the company pay promised bonuses, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.