'Over my dead body': Musk tells investor over 4 am call on paying Twitter office rent
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San Francisco: Twitter is grappling with a number of issues even before Elon Musk took over the company and one of them is paying the rent of the company’s office.
In a new lawsuit filed by six former Twitter employees against the company, Elon Musk told an investor during a 4 a.m. call that he would only pay the rent of the company’s office over his dead body.
Pablo Mendoza, a venture capitalist who invested in Twitter 2.0, had a chat with Musk in the wee hours, reports Business Insider. Musk bluntly told Mendoza that not paying rent was non-negotiable with 'over his dead body' remark.
The lawsuit said that Joseph Killian, a plaintiff who worked at Twitter for 12 years and oversaw office design, was aware that Musk decided to stop paying office rent.
"Killian attempted to convince Musk, via Mendoza, of the danger of Musk's new position that no rent would be paid whatsoever, pointing out that any attempt to renegotiate the terms of Twitter's many leases would be doomed to failure," the lawsuit alleged.
"Elon told me he would only pay rent over his dead body," Mendoza responded during the conversation that took place at 4 a.m, according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Musk's attorney Alex Spiro "loudly opined" it was unreasonable for Twitter's landlords to expect it to pay rent because San Francisco was a "shithole."
Over the course of the last couple of months, landlords of Twitter offices across London, New York City, and San Francisco, where it is headquartered currently, have sued the company for not paying up the rent.
Meanwhile, San Francisco officials are opening an investigation into Twitter following a lawsuit from former employees who claimed that Elon Musk's transition team deliberately planned to breach contracts and not pay promised severance, among other things.
The lawsuit from six employees alleged that Musk's team "knowingly broke local and federal laws," reports San Francisco Chronicle. They are seeking severance and punitive damages for "flagrant bad faith".
The lawsuit is against Musk, Twitter, and X Corp. accusing them of violating 14 counts, including labor rights law, breach of contract, and fraud.
