New York ( Business) — The three top Twitter executives Elon Musk fired on Thursday will walk out the door with some $187 million in their bank accounts.
Former CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal and former General Counsel Vijaya Gadde were ousted after Musk took control of the company late on Thursday, according to a source familiar with the situation.
Executives would have received a large chunk of that money even if they had stayed on board under the new management. They and other shareholders will receive payments from Musk after he bought the shares from him for $54.20 each.
Fired Twitter executives Ned Segal, left, Parag Agrawal, center, and Vijaya Gadda, right, leave the company with $187 million of Elon Musk’s money. Credit: Kevin Dietsch/David Paul Morris/ Bloomberg/Getty Images
Agrawal, who took over as CEO just under a year ago, had the smallest shareholding of the three: 155,000 shares worth $8.4 million at the price Musk paid. Segal will receive $22 million for the 406,000 shares he owns, while Gadde will walk away with $34.8 million for his 642,000 shares.
But they also receive severance pay in the event of dismissal under a clause in the shareholder-approved merger agreement. This includes one year of base salary: $1 million for Agrawal and $600,000 for Segal and Gadde. They will also receive a year of health insurance, worth about $73,000 between the three of them.
The most lucrative part, by far, is the accelerated acquisition of shares that they were to receive in the future but were not yet entitled to. The value of these shares will be US$56.4 million for Agrawal, US$43.8 million for Segal and US$19.4 million for Gadde. Agrawal and Segal get accelerated vesting on all of their shares, while Gadde gets accelerated vesting on only half of their shares.
Added together, the compensation payments amount to US$121.8 million. If we add the US$65.2 million for the purchase of the shares they already own, we get US$187 million.
