Elon Musk has reportedly stopped paying rent on the Twitter offices and asked employees not to pay sellers
The New York Times reported Wednesday that Elon Musk is heading into some legal battles at Twitter, which he bought in October for $44 billion, as the Tesla CEO stopped paying rent on its offices and ordered employees not to pay vendors, the New York Times reported on Monday. Wednesday. .
Citing people familiar with the internal conversations, Musk has also revamped Twitter’s legal department, refused to bill $197,725 for private charter flights that took place in the week he took office — and is considering denying severance payments to thousands of people who have been laid off. since taking office. bargain, The Times reported.
Musk threatened employees with lawsuits if they spoke to the media or “acted in a manner contrary to the best interest of the company,” according to an internal email sent last Friday obtained by the Times.
Musk began cutting costs on the social media platform immediately after closing his deal. In its first week, it was hit by a flurry of resignations, implemented mass layoffs and unsuspended some accounts. Advertisers responded by cutting ties with the company.
Musk did not respond to a request from The Times for comment. MarketWatch has also reached out to Musk.
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The billionaire also appears to have parted ways with his personal attorney, Alex Spiro, whom he appointed to head Twitter’s legal and policy affairs after firing its chief legal officer and general counsel for issues in October.
Spiro, who successfully defended Musk in a defamation case in 2019, is no longer employed by the company, the newspaper said, according to six people familiar with the decision. They said Musk was unhappy with some of Spiro’s decisions, including his call to keep Twitter’s Deputy General Counsel James A. Baker, in turn. Baker was the FBI’s general counsel until May 2018, and joined Twitter in 2020.
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Musk said last week that he terminated Pecker after learning he was responsible for reviewing internal communications related to Twitter’s decision to restrict access to a 2020 New York Post story regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop. Since then, Musk has given these files to a group of journalists to discredit the former executives’ decision-making.
On Monday, Twitter dissolved the Trust and Safety Council, an advisory group created in 2016 to focus on civil rights and child safety.
Meanwhile, Tesla stock,
Buoyed by concerns about the level of distraction Twitter is creating for Musk, it closed Tuesday at its lowest level in two years. The stock is down 54% in the year to date, and down 17% in the month to date. S&P 500 SPX Index,
It’s down 1.5% in December so far.
Musk’s reputation has also taken a beating as he has continued to send out sometimes bizarre tweets and taunt others, including earlier this week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser.
See also: The survey found that Tesla’s approval rating drops into negative territory
On Sunday, comedian Dave Chappelle brought Musk on stage during a show in San Francisco, only to be greeted with jeers and boos.
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