When the the world’s richest man purchased Twitter for US$44 billion on late October 2022, he immediately fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and top legal officers Vijaya Gadde and Sean Edgett, accusing them of gross negligence and willful misconduct.

The four executives sued in federal court in San Francisco in March 2024, seeking US$128 million. They alleged they were dismissed without cause and that Musk then tried unsuccessfully to fabricate grievances against them.

They also accused him of rushing the Twitter acquisition to deprive them of US$200 million in stock options due the following day.

The settlement amount Musk is not specified in the provisional agreement submitted to a judge.

It remains subject to several conditions. If those conditions are not met, the lawsuit will resume on Oct 31.

The turbulent 2022 acquisition saw nearly two-thirds of Twitter’s workforce laid off and triggered multiple lawsuits from former employees, clients and contractors.

In late August, Musk and X agreed to settle a class action and individual lawsuits filed by thousands of employees seeking severance payments.

In March, the billionaire transferred ownership of X to his generative artificial intelligence startup, xAI.