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Twitter building in San Francisco: Dispute over rent
Photo: AMY OSBORNE / AFP
Twitter currently has two major goals: Elon Musk's company wants to reduce its costs with layoffs and savings and at the same time increase its sales as quickly as possible, including with its premium subscription Twitter Blue.
The measures that Twitter uses to pursue these goals make headlines every day.
At the beginning of the week, the news circulated in the US media that interested parties could bid on Twitter furniture that they no longer needed next weekend, including designer chairs, kitchen appliances and televisions.
On Tuesday, the "New York Times" followed suit: citing three sources close to the service, the newspaper reported that Twitter had allegedly not paid the rent for its headquarters in San Francisco or for its other offices for weeks.
Twitter also refused to pay a $197,725 bill for private charter flights operated during the week Elon Musk took over, according to the report.
In addition, management is said to have discussed what the consequences would be if the company did not pay severance pay to laid-off employees.
"These aggressive moves show that Musk is still cutting spending and bending or breaking previous agreements with Twitter to make his mark," writes the New York Times.
The company boss himself did not comment on the report.
The real estate companies are already complaining
Regarding the rent arrears, the newspaper learned from insiders that Elon Musk's team is probably speculating that, given the downsizing of Twitter, it will be able to renegotiate the terms of the leases.
The company has received complaints from real estate investment and management firms, including Shorenstein, the company that owns Twitter's San Francisco offices, according to the report.
Twitter is currently also open to experiments with an uncertain outcome when it comes to restructuring its online service.
Elon Musk announced on Monday that subscribers to the premium offer Twitter Blue should only see half as many ads as non-paying users.
According to Musk, another subscription option is planned for next year, which will be completely ad-free.
According to information from “Platformer”, internal plans go even further: As the tech newsletter states, Twitter is even considering giving Blue subscribers better privacy than the majority of its users, for example when it comes to location data.
If you don't pay, that means you have to agree to share your location data with Twitter.
Only one thing seems clear: the headlines will continue.
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