Twitter starts auction to flip the bird, furniture, pizza ovens, gadgets galore Twitter has arranged an auction rid itself of 631 "surplus corporate assets". An outfit called Heritage Global Partners got the job of selling off kit including six espresso machines, two lesser coffee-makers, two refrigerated tables dedicated to the making of pizza, and two ovens also intended only for Napoli's finest …
Well he can still articulate.
Delivering will be exponentially more difficult given that he has fired or driven away most of the developers.
I wonder how his "search" for a new CEO is going ? I especially wonder what difference it would make to Twitter's image, given that everyone knows that said CEO will not be able to manage any differently than what His Muskiness accepts, so booting out the racists again is clearly off the table.
...if you think selling a bit of office tat is going to help service a billion dollar loan?
Call it virtue signalling, or just sound business. It helps show why Twatter bled cash with it's overpriced furniture, industrial kitchen(s), bar(s) etc. SF isn't exactly short of food service businesses for hungry staff. Twitter now has fewer staff, less extravagence, and doesn't need to pay SF luxury office rents to store junk. So it makes sense to get shot of it, even if that's only for pennies on the dollar.
On the plus side, Twatter employees who've found themselves to be unnecessary overhead and surplus to requirements could bid on some of the lots and open their own restaurant. But then they'd have to work for a living, and SF isn't exactly short of places to eat out or have food deliveries.
> SF isn't exactly short of food service businesses for hungry staff.
Silicon Valley companies don't provide cafeterias for the convenience of the employees, it's to maximise the time that they spend in the office. I expect there'll be enough coffee machines and pizza ovens left for the remaining staff and the provision has been reduced to match the new headcount.
Like somebody else mentioned, it's an expensive rented office, occupying more space than they need to is costing Twitter money.
Why not sell it if they no longer need it? Should they pay to store it in case they decide they need it again someday?
With fewer employees, and Musk cutting all the perks because he wants people to keep their noses in their monitors working rather than taking breaks to eat pizza or sit in comfy chairs, this stuff is useless to Twitter. Even though it will be a rounding error compared to all the money they are losing now.
"Tossing it away? That takes effort and cost money"
True. An ex-employer once renovated an old warehouse area into new office space. They ended up with about ten large flourescent tube fittings that had been stripped out of the warehouse that they'd have to pay someone to take away. Word went around on the grape-vine and I ended up being offered them by one of the directors (I have a barn / workshop that is woefully lit). He was happy that a bunch of junk he had no use for just went away, and I was happy that I got some lights that actually worked.
The billion-dollar loan probably stretches far into the future, and first payment may not be in months of even years from now. Also, if the lender agrees, debt can be rolled-over.
But things like rent and bills, these are more pressing concerns, and this sale can help pay off at least a part of those.
Nope: We were first to cover this - https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/13/nasa_software_oracle_overpayment/ - and this - https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/13/microsoft_gdap_double_byte_delays/ - and this - https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/11/teams_premium_more_expensive/ ... and those are just the stories I know we were first with last week.
I could go on. But this Twitter story was written over the MLK day long weekend, and long weekends are always terrible times for news.
And FWIW I think this is real news: Twitter made losses for years and the fact it bought $4000 USB-charging bicycles might tell us why ...
Reminds me of the auction after Enron went bust. It included a large scale model railway that had run around the perimeter of the London boardroom. A friend who worked there said that disgruntled staff were taking a lot of the more portable gear with them on the day Enron imploded, much of it finding its way to a certain auction website...
Its actually a little tragic to see things like espresso machines and ovens being sold off.
Those were obviously originally intended for the employees who probably put a lot of effort and life into their work and were instantly dismissed. It really does show how volatile and superficial many companies really are; no matter how large.
Because Elon Musk doesn't have any liquid assets around and can't stash some cash into offshore accounts in case of imminent bankruptcy, right?
BTW this is the part of the Christopher Nolan Batman movies that threw me off the most: Are you telling me that a multi-millionaire was left without any money in hand whatsoever and no sellable assets? Really?
I have mixed feelings about Elon in general and there is probably a more ethical way to go about his firings but I've been wondering for some time how and why Twitter ended up with something like 7,000 employees and all these swanky offices in the first place.
Let's not forget it's a site that lets you post 140 character text only messages. OK, so they have close to half a billion users but still it feels like the ex management team have been riding the VC money train for a little too long.
it feels like the ex management team have been riding the VC money train for a little too long
Exactly, and they couldn't believe their luck when motormouth said something before his lawyers and whatever passes as his brain caught up. Honestly, the management team must have thought their birthdays and Christmas arrived all at once when Musk's ego didn't allow him to retreat and continued to initiate a buy without as much as a shred of due diligence, which, of course, confirmed to the fans the true genius of the man*.
He should not have called himself Chief Twit. "Bird Brain" would have been more accurate.
* Watch the Glass Onion Knives Out mystery movie for a more realistic portrayal, it's very obvious. They even added a car, just to help along the somewhat slower amongst us.
Auctions generally charge the buyer a fee of at least 10% on the hammer price, and often take a commission from the seller also. Seller commissions are usually lower or free to encourage more items on auction, and it's easy for buyers to get excited in the rush of bidding and forget about the extra 10% premium they will need to pay when the dust clears.
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