Twitter to be evicted from its Colorado office over unpaid rent as music publishers slam $250m lawsuit

Since Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter has undergone significant changes, attracting attention for various reasons, including unpaid bills and operational disruptions. The latest development is Twitter’s impending eviction from its Boulder office in Colorado due to unpaid rent, as ordered by the court.

According to reports, the landlord of the Boulder property that houses Twitter’s office received a letter of credit amounting to $968,000 in February 2020 when the company moved into the office. The landlord was drawing on this letter of credit for rent payments until the funds were depleted by March 2023.

Since then, the tech company has failed to meet its rent obligations, owing an outstanding 3 months in rent, leading the landlord to seek legal action. In response to the landlord’s lawsuit, the presiding judge issued an order on May 31, compelling the sheriff to assist in evicting the tech company from the premises within the next 49 days.

Although the exact amount owed by Twitter in unpaid rents remains undisclosed, considering that the initial $968,000 payment covered from February 2020 to February 2023, a period of 36 months, it puts the monthly rent payment at approximately $27,000. This means Twitter might be owing approximately $81,000.

While this sum is a very small drop in Elon Musk’s vast ocean of financial resources, the tech mogul has resolutely expressed his reluctance to settle the unpaid rents, as he was reported to have said in a conversation that the company would only pay office rent “over his dead body.”

It is also unclear how many employees currently work at the Boulder office, given the series of unannounced and unpredictable layoffs that have occurred over the past year. However, the office, which previously housed approximately 300 employees, has seen 38 Twitter employees resign after 87 were laid off from the Boulder office according to 9News.

Read Also: Twitter value reportedly drops to $15 billion, only a third of Elon Musk’s purchase price

Is Twitter broke with all these lawsuits over unpaid office rents?

This is not the first time Twitter is being dragged to court for unpaid rent or contract breach of services, thanks to this Elon Musk administration. In December 2022, just a few weeks after Elon Musk’s takeover, The New York Times reported that the tech company was facing rent issues and had not paid on any of its offices for weeks at that time.

It all seemed harmless until the legal proceedings from the landlords started coming through. In early January, Bloomberg reported that a landlord had sued Twitter for $136,000 in unpaid rent for an office located in the Hartford Building in San Francisco. The lawsuit claimed that the tech company had violated its lease agreement by failing to fulfill its rent obligations.

Twitter has also faced legal action from multiple landlords over unpaid rent, including its headquarters in San Francisco and its British office. In San Francisco, the owner of the headquarters building sued the company for breaching the lease agreement by failing to pay the monthly rent and additional rent for January, amounting to over US$3 million.

This occurred after the letter of credit that the tech company had put up as a security deposit was exhausted. Similarly, the Crown Estate initiated court proceedings against Twitter for falling behind on rent at its British office, although specific details about the issue were not provided.

Despite these rent issues, Twitter, under the leadership of Elon Musk, has made changes to its remote work policy, canceling the option for its employees. While the tech company has not publicly addressed the unpaid rents in its offices, it is possible that the company is either facing financial difficulties or just operating on a very tight budget.

Since Elon Musk’s acquisition, Twitter has been focused on cost-saving measures, including significant workforce reductions with over 3,700 employees laid off. Also, the company has introduced revenue-generating initiatives such as Twitter Blue, verification marks, and subscriptions which have of course had their own fair share of customers’ backlashes.

Read Also: Twitter is going to make you pay to DM verified users

Music publishers slam $250m lawsuits on Twitter

Lawsuits over unpaid rent are not the only lawsuits Twitter is facing in recent times as the tech company is currently facing a lawsuit for copyright infringement filed by a music publisher’s coalition, including Universal Music Corp., BMG, Warner Chapell, and Sony Music Publishing.

The lawsuit alleges that Twitter has not taken action against copyright infringement notices and seeks fines of up to $150,000 for each violation. This brings the total amount Twitter is being sued for to about $250 million.

The music publishers claim that Twitter uses and allows for infringing copies of musical compositions without proper licensing, unlike its competitors TikTok and Instagram. Although, Twitter has had discussions for a music licensing deal in March, it was stalled according to a report by New York Times.

Being a very popular platform for multimedia content, including videos with licensed music and instances of copyrighted movies being uploaded. and with the introduction of allowing paid users to upload two-hour-long videos, there might just be a hike in the number of copyrighted materials that will be allowed on the platform.

It is unsure how this will play out but the agreement to sign a licensing deal might not just be on Elon Musk’s mind, especially in his cost-cutting era as the New York Times reports stated that such agreements could cost $100 million a year for established platforms.