Parag Agrawal and Ned Sehgal testify in court in Elon Musk's Twitter lawsuit

Parag Agrawal and Ned Segal, former CEO and CFO of Twitter (now X), testified in court as part of an investor lawsuit against Elon Musk related to his $44 billion acquisition of the platform in 2022. Investors allege Musk made misleading statements about Twitter’s user base and bot accounts to influence the stock price. Both Agrawal and Segal refuted claims that they misled Musk regarding the composition of Twitter’s user base during deal negotiations. They stated they had limited recollection of the period leading up to Musk’s attempt to pause the acquisition.

During testimony, Agrawal questioned the logic behind Musk’s May 2022 tweet about temporarily halting the purchase, while Segal expressed displeasure with Musk’s criticism of Twitter’s bot estimation methods. They challenged Musk’s assertion that he always intended to complete the deal but was misled about spam accounts. Musk testified he was “stunned” by the lack of detail regarding bot counts during initial meetings, comparing the issue to discovering a termite infestation during a home purchase.

Agrawal and Segal countered that bots were only one of many topics discussed and weren’t initially a central concern. Following a later meeting where bots became a focus, Musk publicly claimed they comprised 20% of Twitter’s user base, prompting Agrawal to respond with Twitter’s methodology showing less than 5%. The exchange included an insulting emoji from Musk, which Agrawal said he “doesn’t remember, but it was confusing.” Previously, Agrawal and Segal had sued Musk over severance payments, reaching a confidential settlement last year.

(Source：The Times Of India)