'Golden parachutes' for fired Twitter executives worth $122M, research firm says

[CPLX]

If top executives in a public company are primarily judged on maximizing shareholder value these guys are some of the best of all time.

They successfully sold a multi-billion dollar tech company for a premium at the absolute height of the market, ending up getting shareholders something like 5x the market value as of the closing date.

I’m not a fan of golden parachutes and excessive executive compensation in general, but if there’s ever an exception these guys are it. They successfully transferred tens of billions of dollars in cash from the richest guy in the world into shareholders pockets.

[pmoriarty]

"They successfully transferred tens of billions of dollars in cash from the richest guy in the world into shareholders pockets."

Was it done because of them or in spite of them?

[TheLoafOfBread]

I agree. Those guys played ol' Musky lake a fiddle.

[j-bos]

How does one, as a non executive, secure a bronze parachute? Maybe silver?

This is not a rhetorical question.

[rippercushions]

Work in a European country where severance is based on years employed. When Nokia started downsizing in Finland, I heard of several old-timers (ICs, not senior execs) getting severance payments worth several years' salary.

[pmoriarty]

You don't have to be an executive. Anybody can get any kind of parachute they want... if they're valuable enough to the company and negotiate for it.

If a company wants you bad enough, they'll give you what you want... the trick is being that valuable.

So just be really, really good at what you do.. or at least have a great reputation in your field, and you may have the leverage to negotiate yourself a sweet deal from the company lucky enough to hire you.

[mattficke]

Unionize your workplace. I’m serious, this is the only realistic way for non-executive workers to get anything like this guaranteed in an employment contract. Severance is completely discretionary otherwise.

[baxtr]

The way I do it: be you real self. Meaning: don’t care about what people think about you. Push the things you deem right for the business. Be brutally open to superior. Speak your mind. And then wait and see.

Either everybody loves what you’re doing. Then it’s a great company you’re fitting well in. Or…

[gertrunde]

Surely this is just standard executive employment contract stuff?

i.e. Stuff like 12 months noticed period, stock options etc?

So if people wanted to object to it, they maybe should have done that before they got hired?

[1letterunixname]

Yep. There is a cottage industry of exec TC package negotiation.

For high income engineers, I recommend they find a salary negotiation coach and an IP attorney.

I consulted with an excellent and professional entrepreneur behind thesalarynegotiator.com and found a software and patents IP atty in East Texas. Also, UpCounsel has excellent atty's.

[Zigurd]

Worth every penny. It's a tiny fraction of the smallest discount Elon was seeking. The fact they held the line and got full price for the shareholders is an epic win on which some of them will no doubt build brilliant careers in other places.

[nprateem]

More likely they'll build brilliant houses in sunny places

[boringg]

Sorry tech execs do not qualify as brilliant. A word reserved for minds that are truly doing step changes for humanity.

[wiradikusuma]

I wonder how their offer letter / contract looks like.

Section 3. Termination

Bla bla bla if you're fired for whatever reason, you'll get $30M.

[snake_doc]

Offer letters are public information for chief executives: Agrawal’s CEO offer letter: https://www.bamsec.com/filing/119312521342255/2?cik=1418091

An involuntary termination contract: https://www.bamsec.com/filing/156459018003046/2?cik=1418091

[mattficke]

You can find the details of executive severance plans in the SEC filings of public companies, they make for fascinating reading. Typically accelerated vesting of all equity, 12-ish months salary, extension of other benefits like health insurance. It’s also usually guaranteed in their employment contract if they’re terminated for any reason other than just cause (basically everything other than committing fraud or harassing employees).

[soumyadeb]

If you are fired, all your options will vest immediately. Additional money payment at exec level too.

[spiffytech]

I liked what patio11 tweeted yesterday:

> And on the observed results, maybe I have to recalibrate how much of CEO compensation is option value for “You may someday find your own power and privilege threatened by something in the interests of shareholders and, if you do, fall on sword.”

https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1585846356328951808

[danielrpa]

Getting rid of these incompetent executives who couldn't grow one of the most valuable corporate properties in history will be worth billions to the company. These people literally decreased value, their parachutes being the last money they will extract from shareholders.

[0xy]

Parag used to be CTO and seems to have presided over multiple years of lethargic development and glacial product evolution.

What did Jack see in Parag as a leader, exactly? How do these people continue to fail upwards?

[threeseed]

> presided over multiple years of lethargic development and glacial product evolution

VP, Product is responsible for this not the CTO.

And given Parag's masterful display in forcing Musk to over-pay for Twitter it's obvious to me why he was chosen.

[onion2k]

Parag used to be CTO and seems to have presided over multiple years of lethargic development and glacial product evolution.

A lack of fancy new features in the frontend UI doesn't mean very much about the development and product evolution as a whole. Contrary to popular belief, Twitter is not just the user frontend. There's a ton of other systems shuffling data around behind the scenes - advertising account management, adverts themselves, timeline 'AI' for inserting stuff into people's views, anti-spam, anti-fraud, site reliability, apps...

I imagine you'd need to be quite high up in Twitter to really get a sense of how quickly things are moving, and as outsiders you and I have absolutely no chance of getting any sort of insight from looking at the website.

[lotsofpulp]

Whatever combination of luck and intent there was, it ended up with a great result for Twitter’s shareholders.

[jongjong]

In his defense, I guess there wasn't much to do. The same can be said about pretty much any monopolistic corporation; the money will keep coming in regardless. It's better to sit back and do nothing than add complexity and risk compromising the monopoly position.

[mschuster91]

Don't get why you're downvoted - your point is more than valid IMO. A shitty redesign, the DM panel lags massively on Android since a month or so, still no edit for the masses, no way to re-stitch threads, all some people got was a "hot take" label and the "circles" feature no one knows what it's for other than the ability to share lewds with just a selected bunch of followers.

[Avicebron]

Peter principle I would imagine

[Overtonwindow]

Imagine if all employees got golden parachutes….

[homeland221]

Musk is idiot. Just downgrade to basement janitor. Those golden parachutes clauses won't get triggered if they stay on or quit on their own. I've seen this played out even pay cut just to force someone out of ghe company with absolute humiliation. Then still procees to sue in multiple countries to ruin that persons financials. --- 28 years HR experiences in 7 difference industries and 4 countries.

[rchaud]

You appear to have some fairly detailed revenge fantasies for Musk to exact against people he probably isn't that all personally affronted by.