UNITED KINGDOM: Twitter is being sued by the Crown Estate, an independent commercial business, over allegedly failing to pay rent for their London headquarters.
Elon Musk’s Twitter slides in trouble due to unpaid rent
Crown Estate oversees the King Charles III estate and brought a lawsuit against Twitter in the capital’s top court last week. The alleged unpaid rent relates to office premises in the heart of London, close to Piccadilly Circus, as per various media outlets. The social media behemoth did not reply instantly to a request for comment.
It comes after Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter in October last year. The world’s second-richest man, Musk, paid $44 billion (£36 billion) for the platform and immediately began massive job layoffs that resulted in a 50% reduction in the firm’s 7,000-strong workforce.
The Crown Estate contacted Twitter about rental arrears for office space on Air Street before taking legal action.
The estate, one of the largest landowners in the UK, is an independent corporation that generates profits for the Treasury for public expenditures.
15% of the estate’s annual excess, or the Sovereign Grant, is then given to the monarch to fund their official responsibilities.
In addition to other holdings, it owns the seabed around England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and a property of 10 million square feet in London’s West End.
According to media reports, this month, Twitter has already been sued for not paying the rent at another San Francisco location.
The news coincides with Musk’s recent testimony in a separate class-action lawsuit brought by Tesla investors who claim that Musk’s 2017 tweet misled them about the cash needed to take the electric automobile corporate.
Twitter currently employs 2,300 people, said Musk, who owns Space X and Tesla.
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