Already sued for unpaid rent in San Francisco, Twitter has seen its employees kicked out of the company’s Asian headquarters in Singapore by the owners of the premises.
The list of debts is growing at Twitter. Since its takeover by Elon Musk, the social network has turned into a deadbeat. In Singapore, the company’s employees were thrown out of their workplace, following excessive rent arrears, says Gizmodo. The billionaire and new boss finally settled his slate in extremis, Thursday, January 12, to allow his employees to continue their activity.
Will scenes like this happen again? Everything leads to believe it. Unless Twitter continues its strategy of massive closure of its premises around the world.
Already more Twitter offices in Brussels
From the end of November, the Brussels offices were closed. This decision was part of the great wave of dismissals – and strongly encouraged departures – which followed the arrival of Elon Musk at the head of the platform. However, the place was supposed to be the point of dialogue between the company and the European authorities, who have put in place new regulations to regulate social networks.
Musk-style Twitter is about a dozen international offices closed or about to close, says Business Insider. In Hong Kong, Mexico, the Philippines or Africa, the company’s employees have found themselves laid off for lack of a place to work. In the coming weeks, the sanction could be the same in Australia, South Korea or India.
Closing offices and laying off the occupants is a way of reducing costs. An imperative for Elon Musk, who is still chasing the profitability of Twitter. Only, in the premises still welcoming staff, unpaid rents are increasing. Faced with this situation, the lessor of the company’s headquarters in San Francisco simply took the company to court. Columbia Reit, owner of the Hartford Building, is claiming $136,250 from Twitter.
Unpaid bills in court
Only problem, the rents are not the only charge that the company is reluctant to pay. Invoices don’t seem to be the new boss’ priority. This is why Canary Marketing has also turned to the courts, we learn Business Insider.
This company filed a complaint in early January after breaking its contract with Twitter, which did not pay its fees. It provided Twitter between September 2020 and August 2022 with Twitter-branded promotional products. But the condition to pay the invoices within 60 days of receipt has not been met. In total, the provider is claiming nearly $400,000 in unpaid debts, as well as interest.
These expenses were made before Elon Musk bought the company. The new boss has always refused to pay expenses incurred when he was not the owner of Twitter. This line even led him to another complaint, from a travel agency. The payment of a round trip by plane between New Jersey and San Francisco for nearly 200,000 dollars is still awaited by the Private Jet Services group.
But the trip, made the day before the takeover of Twitter, does not seem to concern the new boss. It would therefore seem that it is up to the courts to teach Elon Musk that invoices remain due, even in the event of a change of direction.
