Twitter CEO Among Execs Leaving As Musk Takes Over

Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Parag Agrawal is among the executives planning to leave when Elon Musk completes his $44 billion deal to take over the social network, according to people familiar with the matter.

Also leaving are Vijaya Gadde, the head of legal, policy and trust affairs; CFO Ned Segal, who joined Twitter in 2017; and Sean Edgett, who has been general counsel at Twitter since 2012, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to be named because the information is not public. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Agrawal took over as CEO in November, when co-founder Jack Dorsey unexpectedly resigned. Agrawal had been on Twitter for nearly a decade, most recently as chief technology officer, but his run as CEO was quickly cut short by the arrival of Musk as a major shareholder and increasingly vocal antagonist to his current leadership.

After Musk showed up, it became clear that Agrawal was unlikely to keep his job. “I have no confidence in management,” Musk said in one of the first presentations about the deal, and the two executives traded some public jabs. In May, Musk responded to a Twitter thread from Agrawal defending the company’s user metrics by tweeting a poop emoji.

Text messages revealed during the lawsuit show the two men had a contentious exchange early in the negotiation process after Musk asked his followers if Twitter was “dying.”

Agrawal confronted him via text message. “You are free to tweet ‘Is Twitter dying?’ or anything else about Twitter,” he wrote on April 9, “but it is my responsibility to tell you that it is not helping me improve Twitter in the current context.” Musk responded, “What did you do this week?” And then: “I will not join the board, this is a waste of time.”

The following week, in messages with a friend, Musk mocked Agrawal for vacationing in Hawaii during deal negotiations. “Shouldn’t he be in a war room right now?!?” investor Jason Calacanis sent Musk a message. “Does he count making occasional zoom calls while drinking fruit cocktails at the Four Seasons?” Musk responded.
Efforts by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to reconcile Musk, a longtime friend of Dorsey’s, and Agrawal after the deal was announced also ended badly. “At least it’s clear they can’t work together,” Dorsey texted Musk after a group call. “That was clarifying.”

Agrawal will not leave empty handed. As part of the deal, the CEO will vest 100% of its unvested equity awards, according to a document. Research firm Equilar estimated that means he will earn about $42 million, Reuters reported.

As Twitter’s head of legal and policy affairs, Gadde has overseen the creation and enforcement of rules for hundreds of millions of Internet users, including prominent ones who are subject to less stringent content limitations under the company’s exemptions. for newsworthy publications or communications from world leaders. In acquiring Twitter, Musk promised to make it a less restrictive platform for free speech, a move he says is “essential to a functioning democracy.”

Gadde was hit by a spate of online abuse earlier this year after Musk publicly criticized content-related decisions on Twitter. The company permanently banned former US President Donald Trump in January 2021 following his supporters’ attack on Capitol Hill. Musk’s statements leading up to the purchase of the social media company have led many to hope that the billionaire will reinstate Trump’s account and reinstate other users who have been banned for breaking rules on offensive or dangerous content.