New York: Three of Twitter Inc.’s top executives who were said to be fired after Elon Musk completed his takeover are poised to collect more than $100 millio in severance and payouts of previously granted equity awards.
Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, who stepped into the role less than a year ago, is eligible to receive roughly $50 million, according to calculations by Bloomberg News. Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal, policy and trust, are in line for about $37 million and $17 million each, respectively.
Twitter must also cover their health insurance premiums for a year, amounting to about $31,000 each.
Musk reportedly immediately removed the chief executive, Parag Agrawal, finance boss Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal, policy and safety, after closing the $44bn takeover of the social network company.
The debt-funded deal has become a costly exercise even for Musk, the world’s richest man, thanks to the value of his stake in electric car manufacturer Tesla, with bankers, advisers and lawyers all racking up significant fees.
Under the golden parachute clauses, Agrawal, Segal and Gadde will be entitled to $122m in compensation for previous share awards, a year’s salary plus some insurance payments.
Agrawal is likely to receive the largest payout, worth $57.4m, while Segal and Gedde are entitled to $44.5m and $20m respectively, according to company filings.
The three executives also hold a cumulative 1.2m shares, which are likely to be bought by Musk as is standard in any takeover. Those payments would be worth $8.4m to Agrawal, $22m to Segal and $34.8m to Gadde.
The belated closure of the acquisition will also trigger conditional payments to the investment banks initially hired by Twitter to negotiate the deal. JP Morgan Chase will receive $48m and Goldman Sachs $65m – on top of $5m and $15m already paid out.
Not every investment bank involved in the deal has proven to be a winner. The US banks Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Britain’s Barclays and Japan’s MUFG collectively lent $13bn to Musk to fund the deal.
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