Musk disputes claims that he is letting go of Twitter personnel in an effort to avoid paying them.
Musk sacked Parag Agrawal, the CEO of Twitter.
Elon Musk, the company’s new owner, has refuted a New York Times report that claimed Twitter (TWTR.N) workers would be let go before November 1 in order to avoid stock grants that were due on that day.
Musk replied to a Twitter user who asked about the layoffs by tweeting, “This is not true.”
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Musk had mandated layoffs before Nov. 1, when workers were supposed to receive stock grants as part of their compensation. Musk also ordered job cuts across the company, with some teams to be reduced more than others.
Related: Analysis: The challenging part is now for Twitter CEO Elon Musk.
According to the Times, who cited unnamed people with knowledge of the situation, the cuts could start as soon as this Saturday.
Reports from the media on Saturday said that Musk planned to lay off more people the following Saturday. He also fired top executives to avoid paying them large severance packages.
Following the completion of a highly publicized $44 billion buyout of the social media platform on Thursday, people familiar with the situation told Reuters that Musk fired Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and Chief Legal Affairs and Policy Officer Vijaya Gadde.
He had claimed that they had misled him and Twitter’s investors regarding the prevalence of fake accounts on the site. The executives had the potential to receive part compensation totaling almost $122 million, according to research company Equilar.
The Information said that Elon Musk fired four top Twitter executives, including Agrawal and Segal, “for cause.” The article cited unnamed people who knew about the situation and said that Musk did this to avoid severance pay and stock awards that had not yet become fully vested.
In a tweet on Saturday, LightShed analyst Rich Greenfield said that Musk fired top Twitter executives “for cause,” which stopped their unvested stock from vesting as part of a change in control.
Related: Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has eliminated senior management.
Courtney Yu, who is in charge of research at Equilar, told Reuters on Friday that the fired executives “should be collecting these (severance) payouts unless Elon Musk had a reason for firing them, which is usually that they broke the law or company policy.”
