 "Parag Agrawal: Not the fire-breathing dragon Twitter needed, said Elon Musk")
Months before Elon Musk took over Twitter in a $44 billion buyout, he met with then CEO Parag Agrawal and determined that the latter was not the "fire-breathing dragon" that Twitter needed, according to a report by the Walt Street Journal taken from an upcoming biographical book on Elon Musk.
Walter Isaacson, the author of "Steve Jobs" and other bestselling biographies, is about to release a biography on Elon Musk. His latest book outlines some interesting and sometimes controversial information regarding the CEO of Tesla and is set to come out on September 12.
In an article by the Wall Street Journal, excerpts of the biography have been shared. The story behind Parag Agrawal termination from X (formerly Twitter) was a surprising reveal. According to the excerpts, Musk met with Agrawal for dinner before finalising the deal to acquire Twitter.
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"Hey Elon - great to be connected directly. Would love to chat," Agrawal had written a message to Musk on March 27, 2022.
Musk responded with, "Great dinner :)."
"I don't have confidence in management," Musk had said in one early filing about the deal, and the two executives exchanged some public swipes.
Shortly after, Musk tweeted, "Most of these 'top' accounts tweet rarely and post very little content. Is Twitter dying?"
Agrawal responded in 90 minutes, "You are free to tweet 'Is Twitter dying?' or anything else about Twitter, but it's my responsibility to tell you that it's not helping me make Twitter better in the current context."
Musk fired back by asking Agrawal, "What did you get done this week?"
Musk also later tweeted that he had no plans to join the board, calling it a waste of time and announcing his intent to take Twitter private.
When Agrawal tried to arrange a talk with Musk through the board, Musk reportedly stated, "Fixing Twitter by chatting with Parag won't work. Drastic action is needed."
Following this interaction, Musk reportedly stated that Agrawal seemed to be a "nice guy" but not the "fire-breathing dragon" that the platform needed. Agrawal was the CEO of Twitter at the time of Musk's takeover, taking over after Jack Dorsey stepped down in November 2021.
According to Musk, Agrawal seemed to have one essential leadership quality, and he subsequently became one of the first people to be fired by Musk after his takeover of the platform in October 2022.
According to research firm Equilar, Agrawal was estimated to walk away with $42 million from the company. Moreover, Agrawal holds 128,000 Twitter shares, valued at nearly $7 million.
Nearly six months after his departure, news of Agrawal suing Elon Musk came out.
The ex-CEO, along with Twitter's former general counsel Vijaya Gadde, and Ned Segal, its former chief financial officer, took Musk to court on grounds of non-payment of personal legal expenses amounting to over $1 million.