Elon Musk bought Twitter, a social media behemoth, for $44 billion in October. Now, after a turbulent few months as the billionaire makes cuts to the company, Twitter is selling off small items from its San Francisco offices – including espresso machines, phones and desks – in an auction.
Now you, too, can have a piece of Twitter’s offices. There’s a comfy-looking leather sling lounge chair with bidding at about $1,450 as of Wednesday morning. Also: a slick semi-auto espresso machine for $4,700 and a large neon sign depicting the blue Twitter bird logo – yours for about $23,000.
Some 631 lots of “surplus corporate office assets” are up for sale, organized by auction firm Heritage Global Partners, including the whiteboards and projectors from Twitter’s downtown Market Street headquarters. There’s a conference phone for $225 and a rolling stand for $150. The auction will end later Wednesday.
Users on the social media site appeared bemused by the strategy. “Twitter is having a #YardSale,” wrote one individual.
A former Twitter product chief, Kevin Weil, wrote that it was “wild to see the Twitter office on auction,” adding: “Great memories from a different era.”
“If you’re feeling unaccountably rich this morning, you may want to browse this ongoing auction of furniture from the Twitter offices,” another user tweeted.
Twitter and Musk, its outspoken CEO, have not commented publicly on the sale, but the company has been slashing costs and cutting staff numbers as it grapples with its finances.
Since Musk purchased the platform, which allows people across the world to share their thoughts in posts up to 280 characters, he has cut half the company’s 7,500-member staff and driven away some advertisers, in part because of a rise in hate speech and misinformation on the site.
“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers,” Musk tweeted in November. “Extremely messed up!”
During a Twitter audio chat in December, he cited the company’s precarious financial position as a driver of his aggressive job cuts and drastic actions, stating: “We have an emergency fire drill on our hands.” A few days later, Musk said the company still had much work to do. “Twitter isn’t secure yet, just not in the fast lane to bankruptcy,” he tweeted.
Musk has also come up with ideas he says could generate revenue, such as charging for verification and subscription plans.
Some media reports have said Twitter stopped paying rent at a handful of its U.S. and overseas offices. The company, which has laid off the majority of its communications staff, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Tuesday, a trial kicked off in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, as Musk and his electric vehicle company, Tesla, defend against claims of securities fraud from shareholders over tweets by Musk in 2018.
Since taking over Twitter, Musk’s personal wealth has plummeted. This month, he was recognized by Guinness World Records for sustaining the “worst loss of fortune in history” – shedding about $200 billion in net worth over one year.
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