Elon Musk’s Legal Battles: Testimony from Former Twitter Executives

Twitter’s former CEO, Parag Agrawal, and former CFO, Ned Segal, recently testified in court against Elon Musk, the current owner of the platform now known as X. This testimony occurred as part of an investor lawsuit related to Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the social media company in 2022.

Investor Allegations and Executive Testimony

Investors allege that Musk made public statements about Twitter’s user base and bot accounts to influence the company’s stock price during the acquisition process. Agrawal and Segal refuted claims that they intentionally misled Musk regarding the composition of Twitter’s user base during negotiations. Both executives, who were terminated after Musk took control, indicated limited recollection of the period immediately preceding Musk’s attempt to pause or withdraw from the deal.

Reactions to Musk’s Claims

Agrawal responded to Musk’s May 13, 2022, tweet stating the purchase agreement was “temporarily on hold,” stating, “It did not build sense to me.” Segal expressed his dissatisfaction with Musk’s criticism of Twitter’s methodology for estimating fake accounts, telling the court, “I was displeased.”

Disagreement Over Bot Counts

Agrawal and Segal challenged Musk’s assertion that he always intended to complete the deal but believed Twitter misled him about the proportion of spam accounts. Musk testified that he was “stunned” by the lack of detailed information provided by Agrawal, Segal, and other Twitter executives regarding the bot count methodology during their initial meeting on May 6, after signing the acquisition agreement. He likened the situation to investigating a termite infestation before buying a house.

The former executives testified that bots were only one of approximately 20 topics discussed during that meeting and did not appear to be the primary concern at the time. While bots became a central focus in a follow-up meeting a week later, Musk did not attend.

Public Statements and Responses

Musk later stated at a conference that bots constituted 20% of Twitter’s user base. In response, Agrawal published a series of tweets outlining Twitter’s methodology for estimating bot accounts, asserting they represented less than 5% of total users. Musk replied to Agrawal with an insulting emoji. When questioned about this exchange during his testimony, Agrawal responded, “I don’t remember, but it was confusing.”

Severance Lawsuit and Settlement

Agrawal and Segal, along with other former executives, had previously filed a lawsuit against Musk alleging failure to pay $128 million in severance following their termination. The parties reached a confidential settlement in October 2025 [Reuters].

Parag Agrawal’s Background

Parag Agrawal, born in 1984, is an Indian-American software engineer and businessman who served as CEO of Twitter from November 2021 to October 2022 [Wikipedia]. He holds degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and Stanford University.