In need of mid-century modern furniture, industrial kitchen gear, or audio-visual systems? Perhaps you’re looking to enhance your apartment with a large neon bird sign?
If so, you might be in luck. Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters recently auctioned off “surplus corporate office assets” online for a brief 27-hour period, offering the chance for potential bidders to acquire a piece of the beleaguered company.
The auction, conducted by Global Heritage Partners, concluded at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on Wednesday, and included an 18% buyer’s premium.
The 631 lots featured a range of items, including office supplies such as projectors and large whiteboards (both traditional and digital), kitchen equipment ranging from espresso machines to refrigerators (including a kegerator beer dispenser), a variety of chairs and couches, and modern workplace essentials like assorted power adapters and bulk KN95 masks.
Also up for bid were some 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 noteworthy items included a pizza oven ($10,000), a conference room-sized booth ($7,250), several individual soundproof phone booths, packs of high-end desk chairs ($4,900), sit-stand desks ($900), and two stationary bikes that double as recharging stations ($2,400).
The assortment of items was both eclectic and a poignant reminder of their previous use.
“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, a tech and business reporter, recognized some familiar items: a table where he interviewed former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey fetched a bid of $1,000, and the espresso machine where former editorial director Karen Wickre had served him coffee was going for $1,700.
“Good luck, I guess,” he wrote.
Ross Dove, chief executive of Heritage Global, the parent company of Heritage Global Partners, informed that over 20,000 people registered to bid online — the highest number in the firm’s 90-year history, a phenomenon attributed to public interest in Twitter and Elon Musk. He estimated that the auction would generate approximately $1.5 million for Twitter.
The auction occurs during a challenging period for the company, which has lost numerous major advertisers and employees due to layoffs and mass resignations since Elon Musk’s takeover in October. Musk has since sought to aggressively cut costs and increase revenue.
Musk, who has announced plans to step down as CEO, stated in December that the company was “not, like, in the fast lane to bankruptcy anymore.”
Despite this, Twitter’s financial outlook remains uncertain. Twitter had not paid rent for its San Francisco headquarters or other global offices for weeks and was contemplating denying severance payments to former employees. There have also been discussions about selling usernames as a potential revenue source.
Additionally, Guinness World Records recently confirmed that Musk holds the record for the largest amount of money lost by an individual, having lost between $180 billion and $200 billion since November 2021, primarily due to the underperformance of Tesla stocks.
Musk remains the second-richest person in the world and is currently on trial for securities fraud related to a series of 2018 tweets that hinted at a Tesla buyout which never materialized.
