The crack up? Musk stops paying Twitter's rent & threatens to stiff ex-employees and vendors

Is Musk tweeting while Twitter burns? According to a report by the New York Times,

“To cut costs, Twitter has not paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters or any of its global offices for weeks, three people close to the company said. Twitter has also refused to pay a $197,725 bill for private charter flights made the week of Mr. Musk’s takeover, according to a copy of a lawsuit filed in New Hampshire District Court and obtained by The New York Times.

Twitter’s leaders have also discussed the consequences of denying severance payments to thousands of people who have been laid off since the takeover, two people familiar with the talks said. And Mr. Musk has threatened employees with lawsuits if they talk to the media and “act in a manner contrary to the company’s interest,” according to an internal email sent last Friday.”

Not paying rent, refusing to pay bills, stiffing ex-employees? That sounds like the business strategy of a stable genius. And if those comparisons with Trump are not enough, then consider that, as the Times also reports,

“Mr. Musk appears to be gearing up for legal battles at Twitter, which he purchased in October for $44 billion, according to seven people familiar with internal conversations. He and his team have revamped Twitter’s legal department and pushed out one of his closest advisers in the process. They have also instructed employees to not pay vendors in anticipation of potential litigation, the people said.”  

Musk’s impetuosity is also affecting his other companies. He had decimated Twitter’s legal department by firing the company’s chief legal officer and its general counsel as soon as he finalized his acquisition of the social media site.

He then installed his personal lawyer, Alex Shapiro, to head up legal and policy matters at Twitter. Shapiro’s expertise is in criminal defense. He soon pissed Musk off by retaining Twitter Deputy General Counsel James A. Baker. Musk later fired Baker after he learned that the lawyer had reviewed internal communications about the company’s decision to suppress a 2020 NY Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Shapiro is also gone.

To fill the legal void at Twitter, Musk has striped SpaceX of legal talent. Employees transferred to Twitter include Chris Cardaci, the company’s vice president of legal, and Tim Hughes, its senior vice president and general counsel. So who is minding SpaceX’s legal store?

Musk promotes himself as a decisive decision-maker. And in this case, he decisively committed to paying too much for a company he did not research, in an industry he does not understand.

He is sure he is an infallible genius. He is convinced he is always right. And he will not listen to anyone.

So, all in all, Twitter is heading in the direction most people expected.

---

Note:

If you are on the wrong side of the NY Times paywall, here is a Raw Story synopsis of the piece.

There will be updates to this story.