Elon Musk reduces Twitter costs by being late on payments

Elon Musk reduces Twitter costs by being late on payments 

Photo from Eli CEO

Elon Musk reduces Twitter costs by being late on payments 

Elon Reeve Musk FRS (/ˈiːlɒn/ EE-lon; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI; and president of the philanthropic Musk Foundation. With an estimated net worth of around $139 billion as of December 23, 2022, primarily from his ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX, Musk is the second-wealthiest person in the world, according to both the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes's real-time billionaires list. 

In October, Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter, and as a result of the acquisition, the firm is now obligated to pay nearly $1 billion in interest payments every year. Musk's Tesla shares, which have lost more than half of their value since he acquired Twitter, are responsible for the majority of his fortune. Since April, when he began accumulating shares of Twitter, he has sold approximately $23 billion worth of the electric vehicle company's stock to pay for the acquisition. According to Forbes, he has even lost his title as the richest person in the world.

In a late-night Twitter Spaces chat last month, Musk defended his drastic cost-cutting efforts.

The tenant's landlord, Columbia REIT 650 California LLC, is suing for unpaid rent in full as well as legal costs and other expenses. In 2017, Twitter agreed to a seven-year lease for the facilities. In the first full year, the rent was $107,526.50 per month. It gradually increased to $128,397 per month in the seventh year.

An inquiry for feedback from Twitter received no response. There is no longer a media relations division at the corporation.

Elon Musk is attempting to reduce Twitter's costs as much as possible to zero as his personal fortune declines, and it appears that this has included skipping rent payments at the company's premises.

According to a complaint filed by the building's landlord last week, Twitter owes $136,260 in past-due rent on its offices on the 30th story of a structure in downtown San Francisco.

On December 16, Twitter received notice from the landlord at 650 California St., which is not its primary office in San Francisco, warning that it would be in default if it did not make payment within five days. The lawsuit claims that the five days passed without payment.

Twitter is apparently in behind on rent at the company's headquarters, which is located at 1355 Market St. in San Francisco, according to The New York Times.

Along with not paying rent and firing employees, Musk's Twitter is also auctioning off upscale office furniture, kitchenware, and other artifacts from a time when the company employed over 7,500 full-time employees globally and free lunches and other workplace benefits were standard. Approximately three-quarters of Twitter's workforce is anticipated to have quit, been fired, or been laid off.

A pizza oven, a 40-quart industrial kitchen floor mixer (retail price: $18,000; starting bid: $25), and high-end designer furniture like Knoll Diamond chairs that sell for thousands of dollars and Eames chairs from Herman Miller are among the things Twitter is auctioning off.

Even a statue of the Twitter bird (starting bid is $25) and a neon Twitter bird light show (starting bid is $50) are up for grabs in this fire sale-style auction evoking the early 2000s dot-com bust when bankrupt internet businesses were unloading their opulent office furnishings.