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☆ How former Slack and Twitter executive April Underwood used angel investing to create a career in venture capital
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Leena Rao | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

That entrepreneurial, technology-focused spirit has driven Underwood to an illustrious career at some of the industry's biggest companies, including Google, X, Slack, and Intel. As she built products at these tech giants, Underwood quietly invested in over 50 startups, including the genetics-testing unicorn Color and the cap-table giant Carta. Underwood began investing while at X, then called Twitter, where she was the company's director of product. Shortly after, #Angels was born, the investment collective cofounded by Underwood, Verrilli, Jana Messerschmidt, Chloe Sladden, Katie Stanton, and Vijaya Gadde. Since 2015, the group has backed over 100 startups, including Forward, Clubhouse, Instacart, Material Security, and Airtable.

Persons: Underwood, she'd, Slack, Jessica Verrilli, who'd, Stewart Butterfield, Cal Henderson, Ev Williams, Jack Dorsey, Verrilli, Jana Messerschmidt, Chloe Sladden, Katie Stanton, Vijaya Gadde, you've, I've, they've Organizations: Amarillo College, Business, Google, Intel, GV, Cue, Twitter, Health, Security, Slack Locations: Amarillo , Texas, Amarillo, Termina, San Francisco

☆ Elon Musk apologized for 'incorrectly low' Tesla severance packages
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Jyoti Mann | Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk apologized Wednesday to laid-off Tesla employees for incorrect severance packages. Some workers previously told Business Insider they were offered two months' pay as severance. AdvertisementElon Musk apologized in an email to some laid-off Tesla employees after their severance packages were found to be "incorrectly low," according to a screenshot of the email viewed by Business Insider. "As we reorganize Tesla it has come to my attention that some severance packages are incorrectly low," Musk said in the brief email sent Wednesday. Other workers told BI that as of Wednesday night, they'd yet to receive any information about severance packages.

Persons: Elon Musk, —, Musk, they'd, Tesla, Drew Baglino, who'd, he'd, Rohan Patel, They're, Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, Vijaya Gadde, Sean Edgett Organizations: Service, Business, CNBC, Worker, Twitter Locations: China

☆ Former Twitter execs sue Musk and X for more than $128 million in severance
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Lora Kolodny | In Lorakolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Former Twitter executives including CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, head of legal Vijaya Gadde and General Counsel Sean Edgett filed a new lawsuit against Elon Musk and X Corp. in federal court arguing that they are owed $128 million in unpaid severance. The ex-Twitter executives' lawyers argue, "These statements were not the mere rantings of a self-centered billionaire surrounded by enablers unwilling to confront him with the legal consequences of his own choices. Musk bragged to Isaacson specifically how he planned to cheat Twitter's executives out of their severance benefits in order to save himself $200 million." The suit, Agrawal et al v. Musk et al, was filed in California's Northern District and follows news that settlement talks between X Corp. and ex-Twitter managers broke down in a related case in Delaware, Woodfield v. Twitter Inc., where $500 million in unpaid severance to former Twitter managers and engineers is in dispute. Representatives for X Corp. and Elon Musk did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Persons: Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, Vijaya Gadde, Sean Edgett, Elon Musk, Musk, Walter Isaacson, Isaacson, Agrawal Organizations: Twitter, Elon, X Corp, Twitter Inc Locations: Delaware

☆ Former Twitter execs sue Elon Musk over severance payments
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Brian Fung | Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —A group of former Twitter executives sued Elon Musk on Monday in a bid to recover more than $128 million in severance that they allege Musk has not paid since he acquired the company, now called X, more than a year ago. The executives include former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, former CFO Ned Segal, former Chief Legal Officer Vijaya Gadde and former General Counsel Sean Edgett — all of whom were fired within hours after Musk took control of Twitter. Monday’s lawsuit is just the latest legal action brought by former Twitter employees related to Musk’s acquisition. The company has also been accused of failing to pay annual bonuses to employees laid off after Musk’s takeover. Musk and X have also faced lawsuits from vendors, landlords and business partners who claim the company has failed to pay what they are owed.

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, Vijaya Gadde, Sean Edgett —, “, ”, Agrawal, Gadde, Segal Organizations: New, New York CNN, Twitter, Court, Northern, Northern District of Locations: New York, Northern District, Northern District of California, Delaware

☆ Former Twitter Executives Sue Elon Musk for $128 Million
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Kate Conger | More About Kate Conger | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Four former Twitter executives sued Elon Musk on Monday, accusing the billionaire of withholding severance payments worth $128 million after he fired them from the company during his 2022 takeover. When Mr. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, he fired Parag Agrawal, its chief executive; Ned Segal, its chief financial officer; Vijaya Gadde, its head of legal and policy; and Sean Edgett, its general counsel. Mr. Musk later renamed the company X. In the event of an involuntary termination, Mr. Agrawal was entitled to a so-called golden parachute payment of $60 million, according to a Twitter securities filing. Under those same circumstances, Mr. Segal would receive $46 million and Ms. Gadde $21 million, according to the filing.

Persons: Elon Musk, Musk, Parag Agrawal, Ned Segal, Vijaya Gadde, Sean Edgett, Agrawal, Segal, Gadde Organizations: Twitter, Northern, Northern District of Locations: U.S, Northern District, Northern District of California

☆ Former Twitter execs say Elon Musk still owes them $128 million in severance
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Geoff Weiss | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Four former Twitter execs, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, are suing Elon Musk over their severance. Musk has previously said he fired the execs for cause and doesn't owe severance. AdvertisementFour former Twitter lieutenants who were fired following Elon Musk's 2022 takeover are now suing him, claiming unpaid severance. They are collectively asking for $128 million, according to the federal lawsuit filed Monday in California obtained by Business Insider. This isn't the only severance-related suit Musk and X have faced.

Persons: Parag Agrawal, Elon Musk, Musk, —, Elon Musk's, Ned Segal, Vijaya Gadde, Sean Edgett, Agrawal, Segal, Gadde, Walter Isaacson, I've Organizations: Twitter, Service, Business, Wall Street, Elon, Reuters Locations: California

☆ Twitter employees monitored Elon Musk's jet-tracking account to see when he'd be in the office
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter staff also took to watching a social-media account that tracks Musk's planes, according to a new book about the company. Musk's jet travels made Sweeney's jet-tracking account @Elonjet more active than ever. Musk also reached out directly to Sweeney about the jet-tracking account. AdvertisementSince then, the college student has set up an account on the site that posts Musk's flight data with a 24-hour delay. The college student also posts flight data associated with other celebrities, including Taylor Swift and Mark Zuckerberg.

Persons: —, Elon, Musk, Jack Sweeney —, Kurt Wagner, Wagner, Elon Musk, Sweeney, he'd, Lars Moravy, Andrej Karpathy, Parag Agrawal, Agrawal, Vijaya Gadde, Jack Dorsey, Alex Spiro, Dorsey, Taylor Swift, Mark Zuckerberg, Grimes Organizations: Service, Twitter, Bloomberg, Business, SpaceX, Tesla, Gulfstream, Super, University of Central, University of Central Florida Locations: San Francisco, Texas, California, University of Central Florida

☆ Elon Musk met then-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal for a secret dinner in 2022 and said Agrawal was not the 'fire-breathing dragon' the platform needed
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Nidhi Pandurangi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk and then-Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal got dinner together in March 2022. Musk came away from the meeting describing Agrawal as a nice guy, but not the "fire-breathing dragon" Twitter needed. After the meeting, Musk said Agrawal was a "really nice guy." Messages between Musk and Agrawal were released in September 2022 as part of a lawsuit Twitter filed against Musk in July 2022. "Great dinner :)," Musk responded.

Persons: Elon Musk, Parag Agrawal, Musk, Agrawal, Walter Isaacson's, Elon, Walter Isaacson, Isaacson, Twitter's, Bret Taylor —, Ned Segal, Vijaya Gadde Organizations: Twitter, Street Journal, Musk Locations: Musk's

☆ Elon Musk is 'totally out of his element' at Twitter because he doesn't 'understand social media,' a Harvard leadership expert says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Harvard leadership expert thinks Elon Musk is "totally out of his element" in running Twitter. He explained that the billionaire doesn't have any expertise of running a social media platform. A Harvard leadership expert weighed in on Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter and the changes he's made, saying that the billionaire is "totally out of his element" because social media is not his area of expertise. George suggested that Musk should let Twitter's new CEO Linda Yaccarino call the shots. William Klepper, a management professor teaching an executive leadership course at Columbia Business School, previously told Insider that Musk's Twitter takeover is "a case study of failed leadership."

Persons: Elon Musk, doesn't, Bill George, Elon, George, Musk, Parag Agrawal, Ned Sagal, Vijaya Gadde, Sean Edgett, Linda Yaccarino, William Klepper, Klepper Organizations: Harvard, Twitter, Harvard Business School, CNBC, SpaceX, Columbia Business School Locations: Elon Musk's

The complaint by Musk's X Corp, which owns Twitter, was filed on Wednesday in the California Superior Court in San Francisco. Musk accused Wachtell of exploiting Twitter by accepting, in the final days before the Oct. 27, 2022, buyout closed, huge "success" fees doled out by departing Twitter executives who were grateful that Musk would be forced to close. "Wachtell arranged to effectively line its pockets with funds from the company cash register while the keys were being handed over" to Musk, the complaint said. Musk wants to recoup "excess" fees that Wachtell charged under an agreement signed on the day of closing by one of its partners and Twitter's chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde. The case is X Corp v Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, California Superior Court, County of San Francisco, No.

Persons: Elon Musk, Wachtell, Lipton, Katz, Musk, Vijaya Gadde, Martha Lane Fox, Sean Edgett, Mark Zuckerberg's, Carl Icahn, Icahn, Jonathan Stempel, Marguerita Choy Organizations: Rosen, Twitter, Musk's X Corp, California Superior Court, Tesla Inc, SpaceX, Fox, CVR Energy, X Corp, Thomson Locations: California, San Francisco, Delaware, Katz , California, Court, County, New York

☆ Australia is threatening to fine Elon Musk's Twitter up to $475,000, saying that a third of all online hate complaints in the country come via the platform
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Australia's safety watchdog said Twitter is the most complained about platform in the country for online hate. There are currently an estimated 1,000 employees left at Twitter, Insider reported in May. "A third of all complaints about online hate reported to us are now happening on Twitter. "eSafety research shows that nearly 1 in 5 Australians have experienced some form of online hate. One research group even found that the use of the N-word jumped by 500% on Twitter after Musk's takeover, Insider reported in October.

Persons: Elon Musk, eSafety, Musk, Vijaya Gadde, Yoel Roth, Ella Irwin, Julie Inman Grant, Twitter, Linda Yaccarino Organizations: Twitter, Morning, Elon Musk's, First Nations Australian Locations: Australia

☆ Twitter's former top execs, fired by Elon Musk on his first day in charge, are suing the company for $1 million in unpaid bills
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter's former CEO, CFO, and chief legal officer are suing Twitter for over $1 million. They claim they had agreements with the company that it would reimburse any legal fees they incurred. The company took two months to acknowledge their demands and still won't pay, the suit alleges. The suit claims the two ex-execs racked up legal fees to deal with these cases and comply with various demands. The trio's action against Twitter follows several others alleging that the company has failed to pay bills since Musk took over the company last October.

☆ Former Twitter executives sue company to recover over $1 million in legal fees
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The complaint also describes legal fees linked to probes by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department, though without disclosing many specifics of the investigations. Agrawal continued to field requests through the fall and after he stepped down from Twitter, according to the complaint. And late last year, it said, the Justice Department contacted Agrawal and Segal’s attorneys about multiple investigations into Twitter. Letters to Twitter seeking reimbursement for the legal expenses were ignored for months, according to the complaint. As of Monday, the executives still have not recovered the fees, the complaint said.

☆ A generation of high-profile women tech leaders have stepped aside. What’s next?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The tech industry has now lost an entire generation of trailblazing women leaders and replaced them mostly with men. And in the wake of the pandemic, women leaders in corporate America more broadly are more likely than ever to quit, according to the most recent Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org. Now that she’s departing, Big Tech is facing a new reckoning over its failure to promote and support women leaders, and what this could mean for the next generation of women in the industry. “Without women in the C-suite who have come before them, it could make this transition period tougher for next generation women leaders,” Kray said. “I think that what she achieved and what she modeled will be something that will live on beyond the fact that now we don’t have a female Big Tech CEO.”

☆ An ex-Twitter exec told Congress he had to sell his home after a barrage of 'homophobic and antisemitic' harassment over the 'Twitter Files'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A former Twitter exec said "homophobic and antisemitic" harassment forced him to sell his home. Yoel Roth testified to Congress that the release of Elon Musk's "Twitter Files" harmed former staff. During a lengthy hearing related to Twitter's handling with the Hunter Biden laptop story, Roth was asked how the release of Elon Musk's Twitter Files had affected his personal safety. He began by saying that the "Twitter Files" also affected more junior employees at Twitter, and that staff as far away as the Philippines were "doxxed, had their families threatened, and experienced harm equal to or greater than what I've experienced." The "Twitter Files" are a series of tweets released under Musk's leadership about "free speech suppression" on the platform under its previous management.

☆ Former Twitter execs tell Republicans they erred on Hunter Biden laptop story
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Former Twitter executives told a Republican-led U.S. House committee on Wednesday that they made a mistake by blocking tweets about a laptop said to belong to President Joe Biden's son Hunter but said government officials were not involved. The committee's witnesses, three former Twitter executives, said in subpoenaed testimony that they mistakenly believed the Post article contained hacked material and reversed their decision to limit its circulation on the social media platform within 24 hours. "America witnessed a coordinated campaign by social media companies, mainstream news and the intelligence community to suppress and de-legitimize the existence of Hunter Biden's laptop and its contents," committee Chairman James Comer said at the outset of the proceedings. Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell has denied in a statement any connection between his client and what he called the "so-called laptop," including contents that Republicans "allege to be Mr. Biden's personal data." The Twitter executives also said company policy sought to mitigate content that could lead to political violence, such as what later occurred in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump's supporters.

☆ Former Twitter Executives Say They Erred in Blocking Links to Hunter Biden Laptop Articles
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Ryan Tracy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Former Twitter chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and other onetime executives at the social-media company spoke Wednesday before a House panel. Former Twitter Inc. executives Wednesday said they erred in limiting the reach of news articles about Hunter Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential election, but denied Republican assertions that there were political motivations involved. Twitter blocked the sharing of links to two New York Post articles containing disclosures from emails found on the laptop of President Biden’s son out of concern that they might have been obtained by hacking, the executives said at hearing convened by the House Oversight Committee.

☆ Republicans held a hearing to prove Twitter’s bias against them. It backfired in spectacular fashion
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Despite no real evidence to support this weighty and consequential claim, Republicans were unrelenting in peddling it to the American public. Republicans showed, once again, that they are married to pushing claims that Silicon Valley is intentionally and unjustly censoring conservative views, even when the facts do not contort with their narrative. Ironically, the hearing appeared to reveal that Twitter had acquiesced to Trump and changed its policies after it concluded that he had violated its rules. And the hearing hinted that the Trump White House attempted to censor the speech of at least one American: Chrissy Teigen. Strangely enough, Republicans showed no interest in drilling down on this allegation of censorship.

☆ Republican-led U.S. House panel probes Twitter block of Hunter Biden story
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Even before the proceedings began, the White House denounced the hearing as "a bizarre political stunt" motivated by denial of Biden's 2020 election victory over Republican former President Donald Trump. "America witnessed a coordinated campaign by social media companies, mainstream news, and the intelligence community to suppress and de-legitimize the existence of Hunter Biden's laptop and its contents," Comer said. The former Twitter executives acknowledged that blocking the New York Post tweets was an error and said they reversed the decision within 24 hours. We applied this policy to the New York Post's tweets and blocked links to articles," Gadde said. The social platform has since been purchased by billionaire Elon Musk, who many Republicans view as a champion of free speech.

☆ Watch: Former Twitter executives testify before the House Oversight Committee
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Three former Twitter executives are set to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m. Still, Twitter's new owner Elon Musk, who clashed with the former executives testifying, has promised to restore free speech to the platform. Wednesday's hearing features Twitter's former chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde, former deputy general counsel James Baker, former Twitter policy official Annika Collier Navaroli and former global head of trust and safety Yoel Roth. Twitter took the extreme step of blocking links to the story, citing its hacked materials policy. Twitter's then-CEO said the company's approach was wrong and changed the policy, but many lawmakers' trust was already broken.

Companies Twitter Inc FollowAlphabet Inc Follow(Reuters) - Damien Kieran, who resigned as Twitter (TWTR.MX) Inc's chief privacy officer in November after Elon Musk took over the social media giant, has joined photo sharing app-maker BeReal as its top lawyer. Kieran started Monday as general counsel at Paris-based BeReal, he said in posts on LinkedIn and Twitter. Kieran and BeReal, whose popular social media app prompts users to share a daily photo, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In addition to his role as chief privacy officer, Kieran was also vice president and deputy general counsel at Twitter before leaving in November, according to his LinkedIn account. Other top lawyers, including deputy general counsel James Baker, have also been fired or resigned.

☆ A Twitter employee joked that they would write 'stay employed' for their Q3 goals after Elon Musk's takeover, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A Twitter worker joked about how to stay employed after Elon Musk bought the firm, per a report. Some staff searched for any indication of layoffs on Musk's Twitter feed, the report said. In the wake of Musk's takeover of Twitter in late October, employees were concerned about job cuts at the company, The Verge reported, citing more than 24 current and former Twitter employees. Another employee replied, saying: "Writes, 'stay employed'," the report said. Since Musk took over Twitter, thousands of employees have either resigned or been fired or laid off, Insider's Kali Hays reported.

Musk's email said hiring Perkins Coie was "an error on the part of a member of the Twitter team." A Perkins Coie spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Musk tweeted on Dec. 8 that Twitter "isn't using Perkins Coie" as outside counsel and urged other companies to boycott the firm. He singled out a former Perkins Coie lawyer, Michael Sussmann, who advised Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign while at the firm. In May, Musk tweeted that Perkins Coie and another large law firm were made up of "white-shoe lawyers" who "thrive on corruption."

☆ A senior union boss says Elon Musk is a 'perfect recruitment tool' for the trade union movement after the billionaire slashed Twitter's workforce
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk is a "perfect recruitment tool," for trade unions, a senior UK union boss told Politico. The number of Twitter staff joining one union has increased "tenfold" since Musk took over, Paul Nowak said. Musk has slashed Twitter's workforce and mandated long hours from remaining staff since his October takeover. "Elon Musk is a perfect recruitment tool for the trade union movement," the recently appointed head of Britain's Trade Union Congress, Paul Nowak, told Politico. If staff didn't sign up to his plan by the end of the day on November 17, they would be laid off.

☆ Rep. Ro Khanna says balancing regulation and ethics online is key to ensuring technology remains a force for good: 'We need technology to democratize voice in America'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

"I think the trajectory of technology is still a force for good," he told Politico. Despite his concerns about Twitter, Khanna remains optimistic about the potential for technology companies to benefit society. "I think we need technology to solve climate," Khanna told Politico. We need technology to democratize voice in America. The office of Rep. Khanna did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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