
The 27-hour online auction is the latest sign of turmoil at the company
Fancy an espresso machine once used by Twitter Inc. employees? Or a neon rendition of the logo? Fans of the social media company have a chance to get their hands on them in a sale of items from its San Francisco headquarters starting Tuesday.
The 27-hour online auction, hosted by Heritage Global Partners Inc., is the latest sign of turmoil at the company, which bought billionaire Elon Musk for $44 billion last year.
The 631 lots of “excess corporate office assets” range from the mundane — industrial-scale kitchenware and typical office furniture such as whiteboards and desks — to less typical office auction fares, such as quirky signage and more than 100 boxes of KN95 masks. Also in the mix are a range of designer chairs, coffee machines, iMacs and stationary bike stations that can charge devices.
Most items, including corporate memorabilia such as a large Twitter bird statue and a planter with the “@” symbol, had starting bids of $25. With about 20 hours left in the auction, the neon logo had received 64 bids worth $17,500 – the highest current bid of the lot. The bird sculpture had 55 bids, pushing its price to $16,000, while the “@” sculpture had 52 bids for a value of $4,100.
Wild to see the Twitter office at auction. Conference room tables, phone booths, chairs, monitors… even the Twitter bird image. Beautiful memories from another era. https://t.co/kLOx69ZbeIpic.twitter.com/BFfvFy6Pg4
— Kevin Weil 🇺🇸 (@kevinweil) January 15, 2023
Organizers have said the sale is not intended to support Twitter’s finances. A Heritage Global Partners representative told Fortune magazine last month that “this auction has nothing to do with their financial position”. The auction house was not immediately able to respond to questions asked outside normal office hours.
Still, more money is likely welcome for Musk, who is radically trying to cut costs at the company and has failed to pay rent on another San Francisco address, prompting a lawsuit. Other offices, including the Asia-Pacific base in Singapore, have also not been spared, with staff there being asked to tidy up and work from home.
Twitter, which no longer has a media relations team, did not respond to email inquiries from Bloomberg News.
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