Twitter takes extreme steps to cut costs
Company selling office supplies and no longer paying rent
Twitter is allegedly considering not paying severance packages to former employees and has stopped paying the rent on offices as it looks to cut costs.
The company is also said to be revamping its legal team as it prepares for a series of court fights over missed payments.
According to the New York Times, Elon Musk has fired Alex Spiro, a criminal defence attorney who was one of Musk's close personal allies.
Spiro has worked for Musk for years, famously successfully defending him in 2019's 'pedo guy' defamation case. The Tesla CEO had tasked him with overseeing Twitter's legal and policy teams, but after learning he had retained James Baker as Twitter's deputy general counsel, Musk reportedly became displeased.
Musk sacked Baker, a former FBI attorney, after finding out he was responsible for reviewing Twitter's decision to block posts connected to a 2020 article New York Post published about Hunter Biden's laptop.
According to The Times, Musk is now turning to SpaceX attorneys for advice as he prepares to confronts many possible lawsuits from former workers, as well as other legal concerns.
More than a dozen attorneys from SpaceX now have access to Twitter's internal systems including Tim Hughes, SVP of global business, and Christopher Cardaci, VP of the legal division.
Moderation and compliance with regulations around content are becoming more difficult at Twitter. The day Musk acquired the company he sacked Vijaya Gadde, the company's chief legal officer, and Sean Edgett, its general counsel, as part of a purge that also included the CEO and CFO.
Shortly after Yoel Roth, the organisation's head of trust and safety who managed Twitter's content moderation project, quit.
And this week Twitter dissolved its voluntary Trust and Safety Council, which provided guidance on operational matters.
More legal troubles ahead
The Times reports Musk and other executives have discussed the possible repercussions of withholding severance payments to the thousands of employees who have been fired recently.
When he first took control of Twitter, Musk is said to have considered firing many workers without any compensation. However, to ensure the business complied with state and federal labour rules, he ultimately chose to give US workers at least two months of pay and one month of severance.
Now Musk's team is reconsidering whether to pay some of those months, or accept facing litigation from former workers.
Sources told The Times that many ex-employees had yet to receive any papers formally separating them from Twitter.
The company is also trying to minimise expenses by delaying paying the rent for its San Francisco headquarters or any of its international operations (calling into question Musk's wildly unpopular 'Return to the office' message last month).
The business also declined to pay a $197,725 bill for charter flights incurred the week of Musk's takeover, according to court documents seen by The Times.
Twitter is resorting to selling office supplies to raise money, listing them for auction along with industrial-grade kitchen equipment, gadgets and iconic symbols like the blue bird and hashtag from its San Francisco headquarters.
Adding to the company's woes, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is also questioning Twitter about whether it still has the employees and resources necessary to uphold a consent agreement.
After two data breaches in 2011, Twitter agreed to a consent decree with the FTC and pledged not to mislead users about privacy protection.
To resolve claims that it had broken the extended consent decree's provisions, the company paid $150 million to the FTC and Justice Department in May this year.