Elon Musk’s Twitter Sued for Not Paying Rent on San Francisco Offices

Twitter’s landlord, the Columbia Property Trust, is suing the company for neglecting to pay rent for offices located in downtown San Francisco.

The company’s new owner, Elon Musk, has reportedly been attempting to renegotiate the terms of the lease, as the company frantically tries to cut costs.

According to a lawsuit filed by the Columbia Property Trust last week, Twitter currently owes $136,260 in rent. The lawsuit is related to the company’s offices located at 650 California St., not the company’s headquarters which is located at 1355 Market St. in San Francisco.

Per the New York Times, Twitter is currently engaged in an aggressive cost-cutting drive, shutting down one of its data centers in California, slashing employee numbers by around 75 percent, and cutting janitorial and security services. The company has also stopped paying rent for its Seattle offices.

Via NYT:

The data center shutdown was one of many drastic steps Mr. Musk has undertaken to stabilize Twitter’s finances. Over the past few weeks, Twitter had stopped paying millions of dollars in rent and services, and Mr. Musk had told his subordinates to renegotiate those agreements or simply end them. The company has stopped paying rent at its Seattle office, leading it to face eviction, two people familiar with the matter said. Janitorial and security services have been cut, and in some cases employees have resorted to bringing their own toilet paper to the office.

Since early November, Mr. Musk has sought to save about $500 million in nonlabor costs, according to an internal document seen by The New York Times. He has also laid off or fired nearly 75 percent of the company’s work force since completing the purchase.

Twitter’s cost-cutting comes after a mass pullout by advertisers that occurred shortly after Musk secured ownership of the company and began reinstating major conservative accounts.

The case is Columbia Reit – 650 California LLC v. Twitter Inc., CGC-22-603719, Superior Court, State of California in San Francisco.

Update — This article as published indicated the lawsuit was related to Twitter’s headquarters. It has been updated to indicate that the lawsuit is over other office space rented by Twitter in San Francisco.

Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.