Twitter is being sued by its landlord for bailing out on rent for its downtown San Francisco headquarters, where the platform reportedly went through massive cost-cutting under new CEO Elon Musk.
The company owes $136,260 in unpaid rent, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by Columbia Property Trust.
twitter was freeloading reported early last month by The New York Times, which wrote that Musk and his advisers expected to renegotiate the terms of the lease agreement after massive layoffs.
The downsizing has already begun.
Twitter shuts down its Seattle offices The Times reported on Friday, cut janitorial and security services. According to the report, the rest of the employees were left to bring their own toilet paper to work.
musk bought twitter to $44 billion in October and has been cutting costs ever since, with Musk acknowledging there was a “huge drop” in revenue.
Cleaning and security staff were also laid off from the company’s New York and San Francisco offices, where workers were striking for higher pay. The Times reported that in San Francisco, Musk condensed the company’s footprint at 650 California St. from four floors to two.
On Christmas Eve, Musk ordered employees to shut down key servers at a data center in Sacramento as a cost-cutting measure, the Times reported.
Meanwhile, layoffs continue, with cuts being made at the company’s infrastructure and public policy divisions last week, the report said.
The Times reports that employees have been directed to delay payments to contractors or vendors — including accountants and consultants working on major regulatory projects.
The company is also being sued for failing to pay nearly $200,000 for private charter flights the week Musk took office.
Employees expect more layoffs, the report revealed.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment regarding the new lawsuit.
Musk has pledged to step down from leading the company after conducting a poll on whether he should do so. A successor has yet to be chosen.
Multi-billionaire’s purchase of social media company makes him the first person ever $200 billion lossGot a report.