Twitter faces lawsuits over unpaid rent for U.S. HQ, U.K. office
LONDON –
More landlords are taking Twitter to court docket over unpaid lease on the social media firm’s headquarters in San Francisco and its British places of work — the newest authorized complications for billionaire proprietor Elon Musk, who has been making an attempt to slash bills.
Twitter is dealing with a lawsuit over allegations it did not pay lease for its head workplace, in accordance with California court docket paperwork. The proprietor of its premises in central London, in the meantime, mentioned it is taking the corporate to court docket over rental debt.
Musk is making excessive price cuts after his US$44 billion deal final yr to purchase Twitter left the corporate on the hook for about US$1 billion a yr in curiosity funds. Twitter has already been taken to court docket this month for falling behind on lease at one other San Francisco workplace.
It comes as Musk has been testifying in current days in a separate class-action lawsuit from Tesla buyers alleging his 2017 tweet misled them about funding to take the electrical carmaker non-public.
The Tesla CEO’s cost-cutting technique for Twitter additionally has included gutting the corporate’s workforce and auctioning off memorabilia and fancy workplace furnishings.
Twitter didn’t reply to a request for remark. Its communications division was shut down after Musk’s acquisition.
The proprietor of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, positioned at 1355 Market St., is suing the corporate after it did not make its newest month-to-month lease cost, in accordance with paperwork filed Friday with the Superior Court of California.
The firm, Sri Nine Market Square LLC, mentioned Twitter “breached the Lease by failing to pay monthly rent and additional rent” for January amounting to $3.4 million.
Twitter, which has had a lease for 3 flooring within the constructing since 2011, had fallen behind on an analogous quantity of lease in December, which Sri Nine Market Square recouped from a letter of credit score that Twitter had put up as a safety deposit, the submitting mentioned.
After utilizing these funds, the owner says Twitter nonetheless owes $3.16 million in unpaid lease and is searching for late charges and curiosity plus attorneys’ charges. The social media firm nonetheless occupies the property, the owner mentioned.
In Britain, the Crown Estate has began court docket proceedings in opposition to Twitter after the corporate fell behind on lease at its places of work close to Piccadilly Circus in central London.
A spokeswoman for the Crown Estate, which owns among the priciest actual property in central London, mentioned it took motion following earlier contact with Twitter over the unpaid lease and is in talks with the corporate however supplied no additional data.
The Crown Estate is an unlimited property portfolio that features a lot of London’s Regent Street in addition to the Windsor property.
