'Golden parachutes' for 3 fired Twitter executives worth US$122 million: Report
FILE PHOTO: Parag Agrawal, CEO of Twitter, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S., July 6, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Three top executives of Twitter fired by new owner Elon Musk stand to receive separation payouts totaling some US$122 million, research firm Equilar said on Friday (Oct 28).
Musk fired Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde, according to people familiar with the matter. He had accused them of misleading him and Twitter investors over the number of fake accounts on the platform.
In an email to Reuters, Equilar, known for its research on executive compensation, valued Agrawal's so-called "golden parachute" at US$57.4 million, while Segal's was US$44.5 million and Gadde's was US$20 million.
Twitter representatives did not respond to questions.
In addition to those payouts, the three executives also will receive a collective $65 million from Musk in exchange for shares they held in the company he has now taken private.
Gadde's stake was the most valuable, worth US$34.8 million based on the final sale price of US$54.20 per share, followed by US$22 million for Segal and US$8.4 million for Agrawal.
Agrawal, previously Twitter's chief technology officer, was named CEO last November. His total compensation for 2021 was US$30.4 million, according to a Twitter securities filing, largely in stock awards.
Major payouts to executives tied to changes in control of a company are common to smooth ownership transitions but can be controversial.
Twitter's filing states that payouts during a change in control event "maximise stockholder value and maintain executive focus."
Payouts would include 100 per cent of an executive's annual base salary, healthcare premiums, and accelerated vesting of equity awards, the filing states.
Equilar director of research Courtney Yu said the fired Twitter executives "should be getting these payments unless Elon Musk had cause for termination, with cause in these cases usually being that they broke the law or violated company policy."
