Elon Musk’s X Reaches Agreement to Settle Lawsuit with Former Twitter Employees

Musk's X platform settles legal battle with ex-Twitter staff—another corporate fire extinguished with settlement cash.

The Resolution

X finally reaches agreement terms after months of legal wrangling with former Twitter employees. No courtroom drama—just confidential settlement figures that probably would've funded a decent crypto project.

Corporate Calculus

Another lawsuit quietly disappears into the settlement abyss. Because when you're reinventing social media and payment systems simultaneously, who has time for pesky employment disputes? Just another cost of doing business in the disruptive tech world.

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The lawsuit was originally filed by Courtney McMillian, who led Twitter’s employee benefits program, and Ronald Cooper, a former operations manager. They claimed that under Twitter’s 2019 severance plan, most employees were promised two months of base pay plus one week for each full year worked. Senior staff like McMillian were supposed to receive six months of base pay. However, the lawsuit says Twitter only gave some workers one month of severance, if anything, after laying off over 6,000 people to cut costs.

Although a federal judge in San Francisco dismissed the case in July 2024, the plaintiffs appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which was set to hear the case on September 17. If the deal is finalized, that hearing will likely be canceled. Even so, other lawsuits related to Musk’s mass layoffs are still ongoing in California and Delaware. So far, neither Musk’s legal team nor the attorneys for the former employees have commented on the tentative agreement.

What Is the Prediction for Tesla Stock?

When it comes to Elon Musk’s companies, most of them are privately held. However, retail investors can invest in his most popular company, Tesla (TSLA). Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on TSLA stock based on 14 Buys, 15 Holds, and eight Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average TSLA price target of $307.23 per share implies 4.1% downside risk.