Twitter facing legal action from Crown Estate in connection to rent
Musk's acquisition of Twitter was completed in October
Twitter has found itself facing rent-related legal action from the Crown Estate in the U.K.
In connection to outstanding rent Twitter allegedly owes for its London Office, the court proceedings were issued to the social media company, the Crown Estate told FOX Business on Tuesday. Prior to doing so, it had reached out to Twitter.
They are currently engaged in talks, according to the Crown Estate.
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The Crown Estate is an "independent commercial business, created by an Act of Parliament, with a diverse portfolio of UK buildings, shoreline, seabed, forestry, agriculture and common land," according to the U.K. government. One of the assets within its portfolio is the Windsor Estate.
On its website, the Crown Estate says over £3 billion has been generated by it "for public spending" in the span of about 10 years.
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
In addition to the proceedings in the U.K., Twitter has also seen legal action pertaining to rent taken against it in the U.S. this month. SRI Nine Market Square LLC recently sued, making claims about Twitter being in arrears on a few million dollars in rent for the social media platform’s headquarters in San Francisco, according to the Wall Street Journal.
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In late October, the social media company was acquired by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. His takeover came over six months after he first revealed plans to buy Twitter and after a lengthy legal battle in which a Delaware court gave him and the company a deadline to finish the deal.
Twitter under Musk has been taking steps to curb costs. Many Twitter employees were let go during a large round of layoffs not long after the acquisition. There have also been reports the company is reducing its physical footprint by closing Seattle and New York City office spaces.
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Musk has made changes to Twitter’s site, including launching a purchasable verification badge and ending enforcement under its COVID-19 misleading misinformation policy. Other things he wants to do are significantly hike the per-tweet character limit and offer a "higher priced subscription that allows zero ads," he has indicated.
Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.