Twitter Sued By San Francisco Landlord For Not Paying Rent After Musk Takeover
Twitter is being sued by its landlord after it allegedly failed to pay rent at one of its San Francisco offices.
The social media behemoth owes approximately $136,260 in unpaid rent at 650 California St., Columbia Property Trust alleges in a lawsuit filed in San Francisco County Superior Court Dec. 29.
Twitter occupies space on the 30th floor of the California Street building, which is separate from its San Francisco headquarters at 1355 Market St., The Wall Street Journal reported.
Columbia Property served Twitter with a notice of default on Dec. 16, giving the company five days to pay up, but it failed to do so, according to the suit. The letter was delivered three days after The New York Times reported the company would stop paying rent on office space.
Twitter has been in dire financial straits since multibillionaire Elon Musk bought the company for $44B in October and began implementing cost-saving measures, including mass layoffs.
By late November, NPR reported that half of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers — the company’s main source of revenue — had stepped away from the platform following concerns over data security and Musk’s business plan.
Musk ended up in yet more hot water several times in December, after violating building codes by installing bedrooms at the company’s headquarters and reportedly telling staff to renegotiate with landlords and vendors.
Musk closed Twitter’s Seattle offices and a Sacramento data center, and cut janitorial and security services in New York and San Francisco — resulting in unhygienic bathrooms and employees having to bring their own toilet paper to work, the Times reported last week.
The company is also being sued for failing to pay nearly $200K for private charter flights during the week of Musk’s takeover, the New York Post reported.
Musk, who Bloomberg reported has become the first person in history to erase $200B from his own net worth, has promised to step down from Twitter leadership. However, he hasn't yet announced a successor or transition timeline.
