Twitter Isn't Paying Its Landlords Or Vendors, Prepping For Legal Battle
Social media platform Twitter has reportedly quit paying rent on its headquarters building in San Francisco and an unspecified number of other leases.
The nonpayment is part of a wider move by Twitter, which was acquired by Elon Musk in October for $44B, to withhold pay from vendors in anticipation of potential litigation, The New York Times reports, citing anonymous sources.
Representatives of Twitter landlords, including Shorenstein in San Francisco, Jamestown in Atlanta and Columbia Property Trust in New York, have not responded to Bisnow queries for further information.
Since the Musk takeover, the billionaire has conducted an extensive examination of costs at the company, reportedly telling staff to renegotiate with, or in some cases not pay, Twitter’s outside vendors.
Altogether, Twitter's global office space footprint was roughly 1.7M SF at the time Musk bought the company. The company occupied an estimated 1M SF in San Francisco's Mid-Market district, with as many as 7,500 employees at that time.
Soon after the acquisition, Musk fired about 3,700 employees globally and insisted those who remain return to the office full time.
Twitter HQ in San Francisco was in the news only last week for reports that conference rooms are doubling as sleeping quarters, which would be in violation of city building codes.
