HACKER Q&A
📣 johntiger1

Did Elon/Twitter face any consequences after it stopped paying rent?


Seems like they unilaterally backed out of a lease and there's some lawsuits pending. Wondering if they will ever face any repercussion from it?


  👤 sp332 Accepted Answer ✓
They got evicted from the Boulder, CO office https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/06/judge-ruled-twit... and the Singapore office https://observer.com/2023/01/twitter-employees-evicted-singa... I know they were sued in San Francisco and London as well, but I can't find how those suits turned out.

Edit: Bloomberg says they finally paid rent in London and the suit was dropped. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-03/twitter-s... (https://archive.is/3e0Eh)

Edit2: A lawsuit in Oakland and a different one in SF were "dropped" and no one seems to know why. https://therealdeal.com/sanfrancisco/2023/07/03/twitter-rent...


👤 toomuchtodo
The question is if any judgements can be collected before Twitter goes bankrupt. Elon knows he can kick this into the future, he’s just trying to buy time. Like FSD and Tesla: Tesla got big enough fast enough the fines or consumer reimbursements become a de minimis cost to the business when FSD judgments catch up (~5-10% of Tesla cash equivalents on hand as of this comment assuming worst case scenario).

No one will know until the legal wheels finish turning.


👤 brudgers
The lawyers probably cost less than the rent.

And one side has the cash from not paying rent to pay lawyers and the other side is short the same cash but still has to pay lawyers.

So-sue-me is a well worn business behavior.

Good luck.



👤 aga98mtl
The plan is just to not pay and hope to settle for less then the total rent at some point in the future when the other party needs cash now. Meanwhile it helps with the cashflow.

👤 jethronethro
Wouldn't be surprised if Musk is patting himself on the back for saving the company some money by getting evicted from those offices ...

👤 krapp
Consequences are for the proletariat.