Current:Home > InvestTwitter auctioned off office supplies, including a pizza oven and neon bird sign -PureWealth Academy
Twitter auctioned off office supplies, including a pizza oven and neon bird sign
View
Date:2025-04-24 01:07:48
Are you in need of some mid-century modern furniture, industrial kitchen equipment or audio-visual systems? Or looking to brighten up your apartment with a giant neon bird sign?
Then you're in luck. Twitter's San Francisco headquarters auctioned off "surplus corporate office assets" online for a fleeting 27 hours, giving potential lucky bidders the chance to take a piece of the struggling company home with them.
Auction house Global Heritage Partners is running the de facto fire sale, which closed at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on Wednesday and charged a buyer's premium of 18%.
The 631 lots include office supplies like projectors and massive white boards (in both old-school and digital form), kitchen equipment from espresso machines to refrigerators (including a kegerator beer dispenser), a wide variety of chairs and couches and miscellaneous modern-day workplace staples like assorted power adapters and KN95 masks in bulk.
There's also a bit of Twitter-specific memorabilia, including a six-foot-tall "@"-shaped planter sculpture filled with artificial flowers (with a high bid of $8,250), a blue neon sign in the shape of the app's bird logo ($22,500) and a smaller, sturdier bird statue ($20,500).
Other notable items include a pizza oven ($10,000), a conference room-sized booth ($7,250) and several individual soundproof phone booths, packs of high-end desk chairs ($4,900) and sit-stand desks ($900) and two stationary bikes that double as recharging stations ($2,400).
Overall, an eclectic assortment of goods and a jarring sight for those who once used them.
"Weird to see the Twitter office on auction," tweeted Kevin Weil, the company's former senior vice president of product. "Great memories from a different era."
Scott Budman, an NBC News tech and business reporter, pointed out some familiar items: A table where he interviewed former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey got a bid for $1,000, the espresso machine where former editorial director Karen Wickre offered him coffee is going for $1,700.
"Good luck, I guess," he wrote.
Ross Dove, chief executive of Heritage Global, the parent company of Heritage Global Partners, told the New York Times that more than 20,000 people had registered to bid online — the most of any of the firm's auctions over the last 90 years and a fact he attributes to the public's fascination with Twitter and Musk himself. He estimated that the auction would net Twitter some $1.5 million.
The auction comes at a tough time for the company, which lost many major advertisers — as well as employees, thanks to layoffs and mass resignations — after Elon Musk took over in October and has since sought to aggressively cut costs and raise revenue.
Musk — who has announced his plans to resign as CEO — said in December that the company was "not, like, in the fast lane to bankruptcy anymore."
Still, its financial outlook remains murky, with the New York Times reporting that same month that Twitter had not paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters or any global offices for weeks and was considering denying people severance payments. Employees have also discussed the possibility of selling usernames to make money, the Times reported last week.
This month, Guinness World Records confirmed that Musk had broken the record for largest amount of money lost by one individual. He lost between $180 billion and $200 billion since November 2021, largely due to the poor performance of Tesla stocks in recent years.
Musk remains the second-richest person in the world and, as of this week, is on trial for securities fraud over a series of 2018 tweets teasing a Tesla buyout that never happened.
veryGood! (89792)
Related
- New Mexico governor seeks funding to recycle fracking water, expand preschool, treat mental health
- Special counsel intends to bring indictment against Hunter Biden by month's end
- Trial date set for Maryland man facing hate crime charges after fatal shooting over parking
- Company pulls spicy One Chip Challenge from store shelves as Massachusetts investigates teen’s death
- The Super Bowl could end in a 'three
- Prosecutors charge Wisconsin man of assaulting officer during Jan. 6 attack at US Capitol
- Some pendants, rings and gold pearls. Norwegian archaeologists say it’s the gold find of the century
- Love Is Blind Season 5 Trailer Previews Bald Heads and Broken Engagements: Meet the New Cast
- Mets have visions of grandeur, and a dynasty, with Juan Soto as major catalyst
- As U.S. warns North Korea against giving Russia weapons for Ukraine, what could Kim Jong Un get in return?
Ranking
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- New data shows increase in abortions in states near bans compared to 2020 data
- Germany arrests 2 Syrians, one of them accused of war crimes related to a deadly attack in 2013
- Virginia lawsuit stemming from police pepper-spraying an Army officer will be settled
- Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
- Long opposed to rate increases, Erdogan now backs plan that includes raising rates, minister says
- Where Al Pacino and Noor Alfallah Stand After She Files for Physical Custody of Their 3-Month-Old Baby
- Legal sports betting opens to fanfare in Kentucky; governor makes the first wager
Recommendation
Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
As federal workers are ordered back to their offices, pockets of resistance remain
Poland bank governor says interest rate cut justified by falling inflation
Descendants of a famous poet wrestle with his vexed legacy in 'The Wren, The Wren'
In ‘Nickel Boys,’ striving for a new way to see
In Southeast Asia, Harris says ‘we have to see the future’
A unified strategy and more funding are urgently needed to end the crisis in Myanmar, UN chief says
The UK is rejoining the European Union’s science research program as post-Brexit relations thaw