Twitter charged over $136,260 in outstanding rent after Elon Musk’s acquisition
Key takeaways:
- The landlord alleges the social media firm owes back rent for its California Street unit in San Francisco.
- Twitter owes $136,260 (£113,601) in unpaid rent on its offices.
Elon Musk is trying to cut expenses at Twitter as close to zero as feasible. At the same time, his personal funds shrink – this apparently has incorporated falling behind on rent payments at the firm’s offices.
Twitter sued for due rent:
According to a case filed by the building’s landlord, Twitter owes $136,260 (£113,601) in a delinquent lease on its offices on the 30th floor of a tower in downtown San Francisco.
The owner at 650 California Street, which is not Twitter’s central San Francisco office, served a message to the social media firm on 16 December informing it that it would be in insolvency if it didn’t pay within five days—the five days elapsed without amount, according to the case.
Landlord’s notice to Twitter:
The landlord, Columbia REIT 650 California LLC, is aiming for damages counting the back rent, as well as lawyer’s expenses and other costs. Twitter signed a seven-year rent for the offices in 2017. The monthly rent was $107,526.50 (£89,646) in the first complete year and raised slowly to $128,397 (£107,045) in the seventh year.
Twitter did not answer a notice for comment. The firm no longer has a media links department.
Musk purchased Twitter for $44bn (£37bn) in October 2022, and the firm is on the hook for nearly $1bn a year in interest charges from the deal. Most of Musk’s wealth is linked to his ownership of Tesla stocks, which have lost almost half of their value since he took over Twitter.
He had sold about $23bn (£19bn) worth of the electric vehicle firm’s stock to finance the purchase since April, when he began building a position in Twitter.
Source – The Guardian
