Parag Agrawal sues Elon Musk: everything about the Twitter story so far

Ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, Twitter's former general counsel Vijaya Gadde and Ned Segal, former chief financial officer were removed from their positions

Twitter's former Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, and two other former executives are taking Elon Musk-owned Twitter to court, a report in the Financial Times (FT) has said. The case is about the non-payment of personal legal expenses amounting to over $1 million. The expenses were incurred during the investigation carried out by the US Department of Justice when the three employees worked for Twitter.

Parag Agrawal, Twitter's former general counsel Vijaya Gadde, and Ned Segal, its former chief financial officer, were removed from their positions when Elon Musk acquired the platform in a $44 billion deal in October last year.

The trio have claimed that the company has "refused to acknowledge its obligations and to remit payment of any invoices," the FT report said. The three employees spent a significant amount of money responding to lawsuits and investigations related to their former positions.

However, there is little clarity about the nature of the investigations or if they are still being conducted.

Twitter merged into X Corp.

In a recent development, Twitter has announced that it no longer exists as a separate entity and has been merged into X Corp. In a court filing in the US, Twitter submitted, "Twitter Inc. has been merged into X Corp. and no longer exists. X Corp. is a privately held corporation, incorporated in Nevada, with its principal place of business in San Francisco, California."

Parag Agrawal's exit and the story so far

Parag Agrawal was CEO of Twitter for a relatively short tenure of 10 months, however, when he left the company, he got a handsome amount. Parag Agrawal had the golden parachute clause in his employment contract with Twitter. Apart from this, he also held a significant number of shares in the company, an India Today report said. According to the report, Parag holds around 128,000 Twitter shares, which are now valued at close to $7 million.

After Elon Musk took control of Twitter, he fired over 75 per cent of its workforce. Musk cited the need to cut costs for his decision. Moreover, advertising revenue at Twitter has taken a hit because of concerns about the increase in the spread of misinformation and hateful content.

Experts have said that Musk's plans to generate revenue with offerings like Twitter Blue appear to be a step towards making the platform profitable. However, the results of the same remain to be seen.