Elon Musk’s Twitter has unpaid bills and lawsuits piling up, and now the company is trying to auction off its furniture, office supplies, kitchen supplies, and neon signs from their lobbies.
It was not even one month into the Elon Musk era at Twitter when we heard that vendors were reportedly being stiffed, with the New York Times describing “some vendors who are owed millions of dollars in back payments.” It was one month and a half into the Musk regime at Twitter that we learned Twitter was reportedly not paying rent “for its San Francisco headquarters or any of its global offices for weeks,” according to the Times. And once Musk hit his two-month mark as the company's owner last week, KPIX reported that Twitter is being sued for unpaid rent in a case filed in San Francisco County Superior Court.
musk and twitter allegedly defaulted on $136k in rent for the SF office and no eviction notice is served, instead an action to recover the money is filed.
— Very Important Tweeter (@seisinenfeoffin) January 1, 2023
low-income tenants in this city fall behind a couple hundred bucks and they face eviction proceedings & can end up homeless pic.twitter.com/1DLIWnLm76
The rent in this case is not Twitter headquarters at Market and Tenth Streets, but instead its 30th floor offices at 650 California Street, known as the Hartford Building. The landlord there is an entity called Columbia REIT 650 California LLC, and the back rent being sued over is $136,250, which is likely not even one of Twitter’s larger unpaid bills at the moment.
Currently at Twitter:
— kate conger (@kateconger) December 29, 2022
- Seattle office faces eviction
- people are bringing their own toilet paper to work as janitorial services are cut
- workers scrambled to deal with the aftermath of a data center shutdown on Christmas Eve @RMac18@MikeIsaachttps://t.co/9ncC8X5Ttg
How are things going over at Twitter’s Market and Tenth Street headquarters? Downsizing! The New York Times reported last Thursday that Twitter had vacated four floors of that building, and was now occupying only two floors.
But there's even more delicious gossip in that Times report via leakers on the inside. “With people packed into more confined spaces, the smell of leftover takeout food and body odor has lingered on the floors” the Times reports. “Bathrooms have grown dirty, these people said. And because janitorial services have largely been ended, some workers have resorted to bringing their own rolls of toilet paper from home.”
EVERYTHING MUST GO
— Chris Fralic (@chrisfralic) December 28, 2022
Twitter: Online Auction Sale Featuring Surplus Corporate Office Assets of Twitter!
Sale Featuring Kitchen Equipment, Electronics, Furniture, Memorabilia & More!https://t.co/2dloWZ9nAz pic.twitter.com/PjYOM367YO
And as the Associated Press now reports, Twitter is auctioning off their stuff in what is charitably described as “cost cutting measures.”
“Musk's Twitter is also auctioning off high-end office furniture, kitchen equipment and other relics,” according to the AP. “Among the items Twitter is looking to auction are a pizza oven, 40-quart commercial kitchen floor mixer (retails for around $18,000; bidding starts at $25), high-end designer furniture such as Eames chairs from Herman Miller and Knoll Diamond chairs that retail in the thousands.”
You can find the Twitter online auction at the Heritage Global Partners website, which declares “Online Auction Sale Featuring Surplus Corporate Office Assets of Twitter!” There are some 400 items up for bid, and the bidding begins on January 17.
SFist took a quick look through the items up for bid, and it does not appear that the Twitter sign and logo from the front of its 1355 Market Street headquarters is one of the items for sale. But considering that Twitter now occupies only two floors of that building, and how the lawsuits and unpaid bills are racking up, that may only be a matter of time too.
Related: Twitter Reportedly Not Paying Rent as Musk Lawyers Up For That and Other Legal Battles [SFist]
Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CA - NOVEMBER 04: Twitter headquarters stands on 10th Street on November 4, 2022 in San Francisco, California. Twitter Inc reportedly began laying off employees across its departments on Friday as new owner Elon Musk is reportedly looking to cut around half of the company's workforce. (Photo by David Odisho/Getty Images)