When Elon Musk terminated four top Twitter executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal on Thursday, he did so “for cause,” said a person familiar with the situation, in an apparent effort to avoid paying out tens of millions of dollars in severance pay and unvested stock awards.
Musk fired the executives—including General Counsel Sean Edgett and Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde—the day he completed a $44 billion takeover of Twitter, as he moved to assert control. His reasoning for citing ‘cause’ in the firings isn’t known but in the months leading up to his takeover, Musk had made clear his belief that the company was poorly run.
