After announcing that he doesn’t plan to trim the Twitter workforce by 75 per cent, Elon Musk went on to fire the top executives of the firm as he takes control. Indian origin CEO Parag Agrawal, Legal Policy Head Vijaya Gadde and CFO Ned Segal have been removed from the firm by the new Twitter boss. But instead being pushed into darkness, the trio will ride into the sunset with hefty severance packages.
Hefty severance packages in store
After paying a huge sum of $44 billion to serve humanity as he claims, Musk will also be paying $204 million to the top three who have walked away from Twitter. Although Parag Agrawal is the face of Twitter and has been the most talked about person in the saga after Musk, he won’t be bagging the biggest payout. You’ll be surprised to know that it’s an Indian-American exec Vijaya Gadde, who is getting the biggest sum when stakes, a golden parachute and a year’s salary are put together.
What’s the breakdown?
Vijaya Gadde is going to walk off with Rs 610 crore, followed by Segal at Rs 544 crore and Agrawal who’ll receive Rs 536 crore, less than a year after he become CEO. For starters the trio collectively own 12 lakh shares worth Rs 536 crore in the firm, which will be bought by Musk.
Read more: Who is Vijaya Gadde? One of the top Twitter employees fired by new CEO Elon Musk
Of those shares Rs 287 crore in stocks are owned by Gadde alone, on top of which she also has a share in stocks worth more than Rs 986 crore that the three can vest as part of a golden parachute deal, which is a hefty payouts to make sure top execs land on their feet after takeovers.
Add to that Gadde’s annual base salary of Rs 4.95 crore, and she has the biggest payout among the three.
Agrawal as CEO has base pay more than the other two at Rs 5.14 crore, and also has Rs 461 crore share in the golden parachute package.
Had been a key player in Twitter
Gadde joined Twitter in 2011, and since then has been involved in founder Jack Dorsey’s meetings with Dalit activists in India, as well as the decision to drop political ads during the 2020 US Presidential polls. She was also among officials behind suspension of Donald Trump’s account.
