'Cornered' Twitter Sued for Unpaid Rent at San Francisco Office

Building Owner Files Complaint Over 170 Million Won Unpaid
Refused to Pay Charter Flight Fee Last October

Twitter headquarters building in San Francisco, California, USA. Photo by EPA, Yonhap News.

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] Twitter, known to be experiencing severe financial difficulties, has now been sued for unpaid office rent.

According to foreign media including Bloomberg on the 1st (local time), Columbia Asset Trust, the building owner, notified Twitter on the 16th of last month that failure to pay the rent for the 30th floor of the Hartport Building in San Francisco within five days would constitute a default. However, Twitter ultimately did not pay the overdue rent of $136,250 (approximately 170 million KRW), leading the building owner to file a lawsuit at the San Francisco Superior Court on the 29th of last month.

Earlier, the New York Times (NYT) reported on the 13th of last month, citing three internal Twitter sources, that Twitter had not paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters and other office spaces for several weeks. Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, reportedly attempted to renegotiate lease terms with the building owner while conducting large-scale layoffs and restructuring after acquiring Twitter.

The NYT also obtained a copy of a lawsuit filed at the New Hampshire District Court, which revealed that Twitter was sued last month for refusing to pay $197,725 for the use of two chartered planes in October of last year. Twitter has not issued any response regarding this matter.

Recently, Twitter closed four floors of office space at its San Francisco headquarters to cut costs. When the cleaning service provider for the headquarters demanded a wage increase, Twitter terminated the contract, resulting in nearly a month without office cleaning. Consequently, many employees worked in a significantly reduced space without cleaning, causing various foul odors such as food waste smells to permeate the Twitter office. Reports also stated that restroom toilet paper ran out, forcing employees to bring their own personal toilet paper to work.

Twitter's poor office conditions are not limited to San Francisco. As part of restructuring, Twitter closed its Seattle office, and also suspended cleaning services at its New York office. Additionally, one of Twitter's three major data centers, the Sacramento facility in California, was closed to reduce costs.

Last month, Musk likened the current state of the company during a Twitter live forum to "a plane heading rapidly toward the ground with its engine on fire and controls not working," signaling a crisis situation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.