Twitter Executives Are Entitled to $122 Million in ‘Golden Parachute’ Payments

By Sandeep Kumar On Nov 2, 2022

After being fired by the company’s new owner, Elon Musk, Twitter’s top executives, including Parag Agrawal and Vijaya Gadde, will be entitled to “golden parachute” payouts totaling more than $122 million.

A golden parachute is essentially a contract that entitles a company’s top executives to substantial benefits if they lose their jobs as a result of a merger, takeover, or acquisition. This measure is also known as a “poison pill” because it can protect against hostile takeovers.

According to Equilar, a corporate research firm based in the United States, ex-CEO Paras Agrawal could receive a $42 million payout if he is terminated following the takeover. Even for Musk, the world’s richest man, the debt-financed deal has become an expensive exercise.

Legal fees are expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars after Musk attempted to terminate the deal with Twitter in July, claiming that the company misled him about the number of bot accounts on the social network.

According to company filings, Agrawal is likely to receive the largest payout, worth $57.4 million, while Segal and Gedde are entitled to $44.5 million and $20 million, respectively.

The three executives also own a total of 1.2 million shares, which Musk is likely to buy as part of any takeover. These payments would total $8.4 million for Agrawal, $22 million for Segal, and $34.8 million for Gadde.

Following the $44 billion acquisition, Elon Musk has begun to reform the microblogging platform’s policies, cutting off employees and introducing plans for a council to determine content decisions, according to The Hill.

He purged the company’s top executives as soon as he closed the expected deal, in which Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and finance chief Ned Segal left the company’s San Francisco headquarters.