Elon Musk Denies Twitter Employees’ Firing News Report To Avoid Payouts

Elon Musk has denied reports that he was firing Twitter employees at an earlier date than Nov. 1, in order to avoid the stocks distribution that was scheduled for that day. Twitters new owner, Elon Musk, has denied a New York Times report about laying off Twitter employees at a date earlier than November 1 to avoid stock grants due on the day. In a reply to a Twitter user asking about the layoffs, Musk tweeted: This is not true. . The New York Times reported on Saturday that Musk had ordered job cuts throughout the company, with some teams being slashed more than others, and the layoffs were expected to happen by Nov. 1, the date employees are scheduled to get equity grants as part of their compensation. Citing unidentified sources with knowledge of the matter, The Times reported the cuts could start as early as Saturday. 

Musk has fired senior executives to try to avoid large severance payments, according to media reports on Saturday, setting the stage for more layoffs to occur as early as Saturday. Musk fired Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Legal & Policy Chief Vijaya Gadde after the completion on Thursday of the highly publicized $44B purchase of the social media platform, sources close to the matter told Reuters. He accused them of misleading him and Twitter investors about the number of fake accounts on the platform. 

The executives are set to collect severance payments totaling about $122 million, according to the research firm Equilar. Citing unidentified sources with knowledge of the matter, The Information reported that Elon Musk had fired four of Twitters top executives, including Agrawal and Segal, “for cause,” apparently to avoid paying out severance packages and stock awards without vesting. In a tweet Saturday, LightShed analyst Rich Greenfield said Musk had fired the top Twitter executives “for cause,” which prevented them from having their unvested shares vesting under a change in control. 

Twitter did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Reuters was not immediately able to reach a fire chief. Equilar Research Director Courtney Yoo told Reuters Friday the fired executives should get those [severance] payments, unless Elon Musk has a reason for termination, and reasons in those cases are typically breaking laws or violating company policies.