The company has been around since Elon Musk took over Twitter in October revolthow aggressive he got reduce costsquit half of the company’s full-time employees and looked for new ways increase revenue.
Now Twitter is auctioning excess corporate assets from its San Francisco headquarters, jettisoning artifacts of a barely-gone era in Bay Area technology. While the online auction doesn’t mean the end of Twitter, the collection is a reminder of a glamorous time when the company’s tastes reflected its status as a hot spot in the tech world.
the 631 lots contain a blue electric light indicator shaped like Twitter’s bird logo, which received a bid of more than $17,000; a bird statue, who had a bid of $16,000; a six-foot ornamental Planter in the shape of the “@” symbol (bid was up to $4,100); and five espresso machines manufactured by the Italian company La Marzocco, one of which received a bid of $11,000.
Ross Dove, managing director of Heritage Global, the parent company of Heritage Global Partners, which handles the auction, said more than 20,000 people had registered to bid online, more than at any of the thousands of auctions the company has held in 90 years performed in business.
He said the number of registered bidders had “startlingly exceeded” even that of previous high-profile auctions, such as those where items were sold Enron, Solondra and Drexel Burnham Lambert after their spectacular collapses.
“The assets are really good because they bought the best of the best, but I don’t think we would have had this crowd without the allure of Twitter,” Mr. Dove said. Referring to Mr Musk, he added: “Everything he does draws attention.”
Mr Dove said he expected the auction to fetch about $1.5 million for Twitter after the bidding, which began on Tuesday, ends on Wednesday. That total wouldn’t “move the needle” for a company that Mr. Musk is. bought for $44 billionsaid Mr Dove. But he said it was nonetheless “good corporate governance” for any company to auction off surplus equipment.
“If you don’t use an espresso machine because you have extras,” said Mr. Dove, “then why do you keep them?”
Twitter, which no longer has a communications department, did not respond to a request for comment on the auction on Tuesday as the company has been cutting costs to stabilize its finances.
In December, the New York Times, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that Twitter had stopped paying rent at his Seattle office and faced eviction. Janitor and security services have also been cut, and in some cases employees have resorted to bringing their own toilet paper into the office.
Now that Twitter is outsourcing restaurant-quality lounge chairs, tables and slicers and blenders, some who knew the company in the pre-Musk era are feeling a whiff of nostalgia.
“Important to see the Twitter office auctioned off,” said Kevin Weil, a former Twitter exec, wrote on Twitter, as he admired the objects. “Meeting tables, phone booths, chairs, monitors… even the Twitter bird statue. Great memories from another time.”
