The company is shedding chairs, tables, bird statues, and giant ‘@’ planters in an office-wide sale
Social media giant Twitter is offloading its office furniture in an auction sale next month, the company announced on Friday. Hundreds of “surplus corporate office assets” from the firm’s San Francisco headquarters will be auctioned off by Heritage Global Partners.
The sale will take place on January 17 and 18, giving Twitter lovers – and haters – a chance to own a piece of the firm.
While those who have been anticipating the company’s demise since billionaire Elon Musk bought it earlier this year were quick to suggest the world’s richest man had been reduced to selling off company furniture to pay the bills, Heritage representative Nick Dove reassured Fortune magazine on Saturday that “this auction has nothing to do with their financial position.”
“They’ve sold for 44 billion, and we’re selling a couple of chairs and desks and computers. So if anyone genuinely thinks that the revenue from selling a couple computers and chairs will pay for the mountain there, then they’re a moron,” Dove explained.
Opening bids start at a modest $25 for a six-foot ‘@’ planter, to be filled with real or synthetic vegetation, and $25 for a 41-inch statue of the iconic Twitter bird. For those who’d rather have their piece of Twitter memorabilia blend in with the decor, $25 is the opening bid on both a pair of stationary exercise bikes capable of charging one’s devices and also on a fancy La Marzocco Strada espresso machine.
While the auction may be unrelated to cost-cutting measures at the firm, Twitter has heavily reined in spending since the Musk takeover, laying off about half of the staff and warning those remaining that there was a “good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn.” Hundreds more employees reportedly left when Musk alerted them that those unwilling to work in “extremely hardcore” fashion would be better off quitting.
An advertiser boycott led by pressure groups such as the Anti-Defamation League demanding stricter control of user speech has also cut into revenue, though some of the major companies that temporarily pulled their ads, such as Apple and Amazon, have reportedly restored them.
At the same time, a group of former employees is suing the company over alleged labor rights violations, claiming discrimination, failure to follow through on promises made prior to the Musk takeover, and failure to provide sufficient notice before termination.
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