Twitter Is Having a Fire Sale

Now's the time to get your 3-foot statue of a blue bird logo
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 14, 2022 2:25 PM CST
Twitter HQ Shedding Assets, Including Blue Bird Statue
One of the items up for grabs.   (Heritage Global Partners)

Twitter isn't just shedding workers, but also the stuff they used, from flat-screen TVs to espresso machines. Hundreds of "surplus corporate office assets" from Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco—where conference rooms have reportedly been turned into bedrooms—will be sold in a January auction organized by Heritage Global Partners. There are the usual office items, including desks, chairs, computers, and projectors. There are also industrial refrigerators, ovens, drink and beer dispensers, a smoker, an ice machine, and a 20-gallon vegetable dryer that can wash and dry vegetables. Then there's the more unique items, including two stationary bikes that charge devices, a three-foot-tall statue of Twitter's blue bird logo, and a six-foot-tall planter shaped like the "@" symbol.

Elon Musk has said he overpaid with his $44 billion purchase of Twitter. Since the acquisition, he's laid off thousands of employees and complained about a "massive drop in revenue" from advertisers fleeing the platform. He also reportedly told workers that "without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn," per the AP. But HGP rep Nick Dove denies that the auction, following another that the company hosted for Twitter's UK office in January, is linked to Twitter's financial troubles. "If anyone genuinely thinks that the revenue from selling a couple computers and chairs will pay for the mountain there, then they're a moron," he tells Fortune.

"Fair enough, since even if each of the 966 lots going on sale each went for an astronomical $1 million, that would still put Musk $43.34 billion in the red," per Gizmodo. Still, "it's hard not to see the auction as symbolic of a tech industry shift: from the heady days of the early 2000s, when endlessly wealthy platforms catered to workers’ every whim, to a more uncertain modern era," per the Guardian. "Somehow, that industrial cheese slicer just doesn't feel as necessary as it once did," the outlet notes, though it adds one of the old iMacs up for grabs "might have been the one used to ban Donald Trump!" The day-long sale begins Jan. 17 with most starting bids between $25 and $50. Gizmodo notes "buyers are responsible for arranging their own shipping." (More Twitter stories.)

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