Elon Musk’s drastic move after landlord dispute

Twitter’s new CEO Elon Musk has received criticism after choosing not to pay the rent for the company’s headquarters in San Francisco.

Musk took over the social media platform in October last year and has faced a turbulent few months as thousands of employees have been laid off and revenue has significantly dropped.

According to a lawsuit filed this week, the company owes $199,000 in unpaid rent – with the company forced to downsize from six floors to two.

Reports suggested Shornstein Properties, which owns the building with JPMorgan, is negotiating after Twitter missed the deadline to refinance the $400m loan on the property.

The company is also being sued for failing to pay almost $293,000 for Musk’s private flights that were used during the first week of the takeover.

There were reports in November that indicated Musk had hoped to renegotiate terms of lease agreements once the mass lay-offs had taken place.
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The fallout has resulted in Musk reportedly becoming the first person ever to lose $200bn from his net worth.

Conditions have rapidly deteriorated for workers at the company and complaints within the company have since skyrocketed, according to New York Post reports.

Employees were allegedly asked to delay payments for vendors or contractors, including accountants, consultants, janitorial staff and security services.

Cuts to Twitter’s infrastructure and public policy divisions have also been made, resulting in further lay-offs.

Twitter will reportedly close its Seattle and New York City offices to cut back on costs.