Since Elon Musk took over Twitter in October, the company has been in turmoil as he has aggressively cut costs, laid off half of the company’s full-time employees and looked for new ways to generate revenue.
Now Twitter is auctioning excess corporate assets from its San Francisco headquarters, jettisoning artifacts from a barely-gone era in Bay Area technology. While the online auction doesn’t herald the end of Twitter, the collection evokes a more flush time when the company’s taste reflected its status as a hot tech global employer.
The 631 lots included a blue electric light display in the shape of Twitter’s bird logo, which had received a bid of more than $17,000; a bird statue, bid for $16,000; a six-foot decorative planter in the shape of the “@” symbol (offer was up to $4,100); and five espresso machines made by Italian company La Marzocco, one of which won an $11,000 bid.
Ross Dove, chief executive of Heritage Global, the parent company of Heritage Global Partners, which handles the auction, said more than 20,000 people had registered to bid online, more than in any of the thousands of auctions the company has run in 90 years. done. in business.
He said the number of registered bidders was “shockingly higher” than previous high-profile auctions, such as the one that sold Enron, Solyndra and Drexel Burnham Lambert items after their spectacular collapse.
“The assets are really good because they bought the best of the best, but I don’t think we would have had this audience without the fascination with Twitter,” Dove said. Speaking of Mr. Musk, he added, “Everything he does attracts attention.”
Mr. Dove said he expected the auction to net Twitter about $1.5 million after bidding, which began Tuesday and closes Wednesday. That amount would not “move the needle” for a company Mr Musk bought for $44 billion, Mr Dove said. But he said it was nevertheless “good corporate governance” for any company to auction off surplus equipment.
“If you’re not going to use an espresso machine because you have extras,” Mr. Dove said, “why are you keeping it?”
Twitter, which no longer has a communications department, did not respond to a request for comment on the auction on Tuesday as the company pushed costs to stabilize its finances.
In December, The New York Times, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that Twitter had stopped paying rent in the Seattle office and was on the verge of eviction. Concierge and security services were also cut and in some cases employees resorted to bringing their own toilet paper to the office.
As Twitter unloads restaurant-quality lounge chairs, tables, and deli slicers and mixers, some who knew the company in the pre-Musk era are experiencing an explosion of nostalgia.
“I would like to see the Twitter office auctioned off,” said Kevin Weil, a former Twitter executive, wrote on Twitter, marveling at the items. “Board room tables, phone booths, chairs, monitors… even the Twitter bird image. Beautiful memories from another era.”
