Twitter owes $13 billion in debt and plans to make its first payment on that debt next week, Bloomberg reports. Due to this immediate financial burden, CEO Elon Musk has been doing everything he can to cut costs, including ordering mass layoffs, skipping rent payments and cutting employee benefits. But even those major cost-cutting moves weren’t enough to stop Musk from turning penny-pinching. , sold off equipment no longer needed by Twitter’s greatly reduced staff.
The liquidation of Twitter’s corporate assets occurred during an online auction that ended yesterday, apparently generating thousands of dollars from the sale of over 600 items, including kitchenware, furniture, electronics and memorabilia.
The auction site, Heritage Global Partners, chose not to disclose the results of the auction, so it’s impossible to tell at a glance how much the auction hit Twitter’s overall debt. Nick Dove, president of Heritage Global Partners, told Fortune last month that the auction “has nothing to do” with his dire financial situation on Twitter.
“They sold for $44 billion. We sell chairs and desks and a few computers,” Dove told Fortune. “So if anyone really thinks they can sell two computers and a chair and the proceeds go to that pile, he’s an idiot.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that a Twitter bird statue sold for around $100,000, with the lowest priced item selling for $150. Unusual items like neon lights on his Twitter bird, which sold for $40,000, garnered higher bids, reported The Guardian.
According to the WSJ, the winning bidders of the auction will get their hands on all the items next week.
According to Bloomberg, Twitter may have to pay out $300 million before its first loan payment is due on Jan. 27. Last year, Musk warned that his Twitter bankruptcy was still a possibility, but for now, Musk appears to have run out of satisfying options.
Twitter and Heritage Global Partners did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.
A potentially more lucrative auction Twitter is considering but has yet to act on is a username auction, The New York Times reported earlier this month. Who knows if Twitter will go ahead with its plans.Historically, platforms prohibits the sale of usernames.
