Twitter Allegedly Stiffs Landlords and Vendors $14M

Twitter has reportedly faced nine lawsuits alleging unpaid bills since Elon Musk purchased the company.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Sunday (Feb. 19) that the bills pre-date Musk’s purchase of the company and total $14 million plus interest.

One of the nine suits was withdrawn by the plaintiff on Friday, according to the report.

The goods and services in the disputed invoices include consulting, swag ordered by Twitter’s marketing department, rental of office space and charter flights made by executives in the days before the deal was made for Musk to purchase the company.

At his other companies, Musk has at times pressured suppliers and vendors by stretching payment terms, stopping payments or seeking retroactive rebates when working to conserve cash, according to the report.

Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter on Oct. 27 and quickly fired the company’s senior leadership and got the firm focused on a new, more aggressive expansion of monetizing the product.

Days later, on Oct. 31, Musk dissolved the Twitter board and became the company’s sole director.

In early November, Musk said that activist groups were pressuring advertisers to leave Twitter after his acquisition of it had caused a “massive drop in revenue.”

About a week later, on Nov. 10, it was reported he hinted of a Twitter bankruptcy during a call with employees that was his first address to the staff since he acquired the company in a bid to cut costs. He also said it was urgent that that company make its Twitter Blue membership “something users will want to pay for.”

Twitter also made job cuts after Musk’s acquisition of the company. Layoffs.fyi — a website that tracks layoffs in the tech industry — reported that Twitter reduced its headcount by 3,700 in 2022.

In another move to monetize the popular social media service, Twitter is moving closer to its plan to process payments across the platform.

Musk has wanted to bring payments to Twitter since before he owned the company — returning him to the payments industry where his story began — and a flurry of filings made since his October acquisition of the firm points to imminent plans to introduce embedded payments across the service.