The Twitter bird logo reflected in a man’s eye. Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the social media platform in October has coincided with a 40 per cent drop in revenue in the past year
(Picture: PA Archive)Twitter‘s bird statue has sold for a whopping $100,000 (£81,000) after Elon Musk’s mega-fire sale.
The statue was auctioned off alongside furniture, kitchen equipment and decorations at the company’s San Francisco headquarters.
The 27-hour auction ended late in the evening on Wednesday, January 18.
Twitter's #bird statue sells for $100,000 at auction 🥂 An auction for hundreds of items at #Twitter's #SanFrancisco HQ has just ended.
— ILONSI (@ilonsiofficial) January 19, 2023
A statue of the platform's famous bird logo has claimed the most expensive item sold, coming in at $100,000! pic.twitter.com/ufZoulj4Fi
Why was the Twitter bird statue sold?
Both Twitter and owner Elon Musk have stirred controversy over the past few months.
Mr Musk’s $44 billion (£36bn) takeover of the social media platform in October coincided with a 40 per cent drop in revenue in the past year. More than 500 advertisers have pulled out of the platform.
Mr Musk has laid off about half of the company’s 7,500 staff. He has also ended many of Twitter’s perks, such as free meals.
Wild to see the Twitter office on auction. Board room tables, phone booths, chairs, monitors... even the Twitter bird statue. Great memories from a different era. https://t.co/kLOx69ZbeI pic.twitter.com/BFfvFy6Pg4
— Kevin Weil 🇺🇸 (@kevinweil) January 15, 2023
Mr Musk subsequently stepped away from the CEO role and, due to severe cost cuts, decided to raise funds with an auction.
A Twitter bird statue fetched $100,000 on Wednesday as Elon Musk auctioned off furniture, decorations, kitchen equipment and more from the tech firm's downtown San Francisco headquarters.https://t.co/auJZEMl7ZA
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) January 19, 2023
He said this also allowed him to clear his San Francisco headquarters of “woke” supplies.
What else was sold at the auction?
The three-and-a-half-foot bird statue was the most expensive sale, despite a starting bid of only $25.
A neon light in the shape of Twitter’s bird logo fetched an impressive $40,000 (£32,400), Heritage Global Partners auction service confirmed.
The auction didn’t feature only Twitter memorabilia, either. Espresso machines, televisions, bicycle-powered charging stations, ergonomically correct desks and pizza ovens were also sold.
Nick Dove from Heritage Global Partners said that despite the auction’s success, it would do little to address Twitter’s dire financial predicament.
“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,” Mr Dove told the BBC.
Mr Musk said in November that the massive drop in revenue was “due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation, and we did everything we could to appease the activists”.
