This Friday, tech billionaire Elon Musk confirmed his long-standing buyout of Twitter — using his
newfound power to knock some key executives off the board, including CEO Parag Agrawal.
Agrawal’s journey at Twitter was fairly storied. The IIT-Bombay x Stanford graduate first associated himself with Microsoft and Yahoo!, before joining Twitter in 2011 with a half-baked Ph.D. on his plate.
He soon found himself working with artificial intelligence projects designed to analyze user data and push advertisements — generating millions of dollars for the platform.
But how much has Agrawal amassed for himself? Let’s take a closer look.
Assured Assets
Agrawal’s short but impressive stint at the helm of Twitter saw the company’s revenue rise by 17.45% — great numbers that allowed him to receive an annual salary of one million dollars. In addition to this, he received an annual performance bonus of up to 150% of his base salary — representing another $2.5 million.
This isn’t as important as the termination contract he has worked through, however. Out of the total $88 million offered to top Twitter execs who got the axe this week, Agrawal will take home the largest payout of $38.7 million, largely due “to the entirety of his shares vesting upon his firing”.
These shares were approximately worth $12.5 million — leaving an approximate net worth of just about $50 million, which is a nearly 1500% rise in his value across the last year.
What Will Agrawal Spend On?
Given the fact that his wealth has multiplied massively — possibly because of Agrawal’s somewhat laissez-faire approach to handling Elon’s takeover plans — Agrawal can do pretty much anything he
wants for a while.
He isn’t one to sit around and bide his time, however. Most of Agrawal’s career is littered with examples of deep research into AI, data management, and other related fields, all of which are seriously lucrative in 2022. Of particular interest is his leadership of Project Bluesky — a small team set in place by ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that aims to set up a decentralized social network protocol.
Given his interest in the field, some feel that Agrawal will use his newfound funds to spearhead new companies — perhaps using his earlier years of research work for some of the biggest tech
companies in the world.
Meanwhile, Musk — who was recently embroiled in a rumor that suggested he was aiming to fire
75% of Twitter’s workforce — assuaged followers in the wake of firing Agrawal and some of his
employees.
On Thursday, Musk wrote a message to reassure advertisers that social messaging services wouldn’t devolve into “a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because is important to the future of civilization to have a
common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner,
without resorting to violence,” Musk said in the message.
“There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far-right wing and far left-wing
echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”
Lead Image: Twitter
