Current:Home > MarketsTwitter auctioned off office supplies, including a pizza oven and neon bird sign -Quantum Growth Learning
Twitter auctioned off office supplies, including a pizza oven and neon bird sign
View
Date:2025-04-17 01:04:30
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! (45)
Related
- Jamie Foxx gets stitches after a glass is thrown at him during dinner in Beverly Hills
- Red Cross declares an emergency blood shortage, as number of donors hits 20-year low
- Timeline: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospitalization
- Shohei Ohtani’s Dodgers deal prompts California controller to ask Congress to cap deferred payments
- Meta releases AI model to enhance Metaverse experience
- United, Alaska Airlines find loose hardware on door plugs on several Boeing 737 Max 9 planes
- OSCE laments Belarus’ refusal to allow its monitors to observe February’s parliamentary vote
- Barry Keoghan Details His Battle With Near-Fatal Flesh-Eating Disease
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- 'The sweetest child': Tyre Nichols remembered a year after fatal police beating
Ranking
- Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
- 1000-Lb. Sisters' Tammy Slaton Fires Back at Haters Criticizing Her Appearance
- Hayley Erbert Praises Husband Derek Hough's Major Milestone After Unfathomable Health Battle
- Tiger Woods and Nike have ended their partnership after 27 years
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- Family of British tourist among 5 killed in 2018 Grand Canyon helicopter crash wins $100M settlement
- Golden Globes 2024 red carpet highlights: Looks, quotes and more key moments
- Family of British tourist among 5 killed in 2018 Grand Canyon helicopter crash wins $100M settlement
Recommendation
Warm inflation data keep S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq under wraps before Fed meeting next week
The 'Epstein list' and why we need to talk about consent with our kids
Gabriel Attal is France’s youngest-ever and first openly gay prime minister
Upgrade Your 2024 Wellness Routine with Cozy Essentials & Skin-Pampering Must-Haves
Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
Defense Secretary Austin was treated for prostate cancer and a urinary tract infection, doctors say
Zelenskyy, Blinken, Israeli president and more will come to Davos to talk about global challenges
Third Eye Blind reveals dates and cities for Summer Gods 2024 tour