In a soon-to-be-aired interview with Bloomberg View's Barry Ritholtz, Bill Gross said that he was fired from the firm he co-founded back in 1971.
Gross said in the interview that he "offered to step down from the executive committee and compensation committee and oversee closed-end funds after differences with management over his personality and the firm's business direction," reports Bloomberg's Mary Childs.
He also noted that he offered to take on a smaller role on at least three occasions over the past 13 months.
"For some reason still unbeknownst to me, they didn't think that was a good idea and they did fire me," Gross said.
"In the last few weeks, it blindsided me; I had no idea that an executive committee could fire a founder and the titular leader of a company," he told Ritholtz.
Back in the end of September, Gross shocked the industry and left powerhouse Pimco for the signifcantly smaller Janus Capital Group.
At the time, CNBC reported that Gross was going to be fired over "increasingly erratic behavior," so Gross made the first move and went to Janus.
"A leader has to be tough," Gross told Bloomberg's Ritholtz. "If you sit around a table and you congenially look for a consensus-type of outcome, you're in trouble. You can't manage money that way. At some point somebody has to step in and say, 'We are going in this direction,' and I viewed that as my job and I think I did it well."