Musk denies firing Twitter workers to avoid payouts

Reports say executives were fired "for cause" to avoid severance payouts.

Elon Musk, Twitter's new owner, has denied claims in a New York Times report that he would begin layoffs at the company before 1st November, when employees are supposed to start receiving stock grants as part of their compensation.

"This is false," Musk tweeted in response to a tweet from Eric Umansky, deputy managing editor of ProPublica. Umansky had claimed that Musk was "making sure to fire people at Twitter before part of their year-end compensation kicks in on Tuesday."

Musk didn't elaborate on what was exactly was false.

The Times story emphasised that stock grants make up a significant amount of an employee's pay. By terminating employees before the 1st November, Musk may be able to avoid those payouts.

The report, citing individuals with knowledge of the matter, claimed that some managers have been asked to make lists of employees to cut.

The paper said that Musk - who completed a $44-billion deal to buy Twitter on Thursday - has ordered the cuts across the firm, with some teams to be impacted more than others. The scale of the layoffs could not be determined, the report added.

Twitter currently employs about 7,500 people worldwide.

Previous reports said the Musk would terminate 75% of Twitter's workforce, but when he visited Twitter headquarters last week, he stated that such figures were incorrect.

The Washington Post said he might still cut 50% of Twitter's staff, with the legal department and Trust & Safety to be among the first hit.

Musk said earlier this month that "software engineering, server operations, and design would rule the roost" after his takeover.

Many of the company's senior executives, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, Head of Legal Policy Vijaya Gadde, and General Counsel Sean Edgett were sacked as soon as Musk took over last week.

According to The Information, the executives were dismissed "for cause," in an apparent bid to avoid having to pay them their contractual multimillion-dollar 'golden parachute' severance package.

The four former executives are expected to receive severance package totalling almost $90 million, with Mr Agrawal set for a compensation of $38.7 million, mostly in the form of shares due under various bonus schemes.

In the months before to the deal's closing, Musk made several statements that the company was poorly run.

The alleged "for cause" dismissals, nevertheless, risk triggering a long legal dispute with the former executives, who are reportedly considering their options.

Musk has previously told investors that he "would take Twitter private, reduce its workforce, roll back its content moderation rules and find new revenue streams."

Additionally, he said that Twitter will create a "content moderation council" and any significant content decisions or account reinstatements will take place once such a group has convened.