Elon Musk’s Twitter Faces Multiple Lawsuits over Unpaid Bills

Twitter is dealing with an increasing number of allegations that it has not paid its bills as Elon Musk maintains his control over the social media giant. Vendors, landlords, and other creditors allege in lawsuits that Musk’s company has failed to pay $14 million in bills and rent.

The Wall Street Journal reports that since Elon Musk took Twitter over, at least nine lawsuits have been filed by landlords, consultants, and vendors alleging that Twitter has failed to make payments totaling more than $14 million plus interest. This could mean a challenging time ahead for the platform as it aims to break even this year.

The lawsuits include requests for money from vendors, marketing advisors, and landlords. One of the claims is an invoice of almost $7,000 for a “swag gift box for Elon” ordered by Twitter’s marketing department just days before the $44 billion deal closed on October 27. The bill hasn’t been paid in full yet.

A dismissal request was made in one of the nine lawsuits, and the case was finally resolved on February 18, 2023. Musk took over the bills when he assumed leadership more than three months ago. He then quickly implemented a more frugal spending style as part of his trademark intensity.

According to Van Conway, a restructuring expert who has helped distressed companies for almost 40 years, “What Elon Musk is doing is basically simulating a bankruptcy. He is taking a machete to his costs.” Inquiries for comment were not answered by  Musk or Twitter.

Since late October, Twitter has undergone significant changes as Musk has rushed to revamp the offering of a business with a history of losing money and cutting costs in the face of a decline in advertiser interest and deal-related debt expenses. He has drastically reduced staff and expressed his displeasure with spending in tweets, including the $13 million a year he claimed was spent on employee meals at the company’s headquarters.

Early on, Musk had expressed dissatisfaction over the company’s daily losses of more than $4 million and suggested that bankruptcy might be an option. Since then, he has claimed that the business is developing. In a tweet on February 5, Musk stated that “Twitter still has challenges, but is now trending to breakeven if we keep at it,”

Musk may be upbeat, but the lawsuits present a more complicated picture. Three of the lawsuits relate to Twitter’s office space, including offices in San Francisco. The company’s landlord has alleged that Twitter failed to make almost $6.8 million in rent payments for December and January.

Twitter no longer discloses its financial information publicly as it is now private. The business stated in its annual report that it would owe $239 million by 2023, mainly for office space and data center facilities.

Canary LLC, a marketing firm that specializes in creating the kinds of logo-adorned merchandise popular with Silicon Valley tech companies, claimed in a lawsuit filed in January that Twitter is delinquent on payments totaling almost $400,000 for various items bearing the Twitter brand.

The almost $7,000 purchase order describing a “swag gift box for Elon,” was included in the company’s court documents. The order’s invoice listed an extra-large bomber jacket, more than $250 worth of socks, and a Japanese whisky bottle with a sandblasted logo. Canary declined to comment, and it couldn’t be determined if the items were for Musk himself.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan