Elon Musk refusing to pay Twitter travel expenses, report says

Elon Musk's cost-cutting at Twitter has extended to refusing to pay travel expenses incurred by company executives, according to a report by the New York Times.

Mr Musk, the world's richest person, has been slashing costs at the social media company since he acquired it for $44 billion at the end of last month, and said that it was losing $4 million a day.

Having fired more than 3,000 staff, he is now refusing to pay travel vendors for the bills, which he said were authorised by the company's former management and not him, and his staff are subsequently avoiding calls from the vendors, the Times reported.

Twitter employees have been instructed to renegotiate technology service deals with the companies such as Amazon and Oracle, while corporate credit cards have been shut off, the report said.

Employee benefits that have been trimmed include subsidised gym passes, phone and internet bills and childcare stipends.

He tweeted that “almost no one came to the office” and the “estimated cost per lunch served in the past 12 months is more than $400".

Elon Musk memorabilia auctioned by ex-girlfriend for $165,000

Former Twitter employee Tracy Hawkins, who tweeted that she had resigned from the company, said that $20 to $25 for breakfast and lunch a day per person was spent.

She said this enabled employees to work through lunch and meetings, and attendance was 20 per cent to 50 per cent in the company's offices.

Mr Musk fired back, saying that Twitter spent $13m a year on food service for its San Francisco headquarters.

“There are more people preparing breakfast than eating breakfast,” he tweeted. “They don’t even bother serving dinner, because there is no one in the building.”

In his first address to Twitter employees earlier this month, he told them that bankruptcy was a possibility, and that the company needed to move with urgency to make its $8 subscription product, Twitter Blue, something users will want to pay for given the pull-back by advertisers that had affected revenue.

Despite the turmoil during Mr Musk's first month in charge, he has claimed the site's performance has drastically improved.

First he tweeted that Twitter had added 1.6 million daily active users this past week, “another all-time high”.

And then he tweeted that hate speech impressions were “down by 1/3 from pre-spike levels”.

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Top investing tips for UAE residents in 2021

Build an emergency fund: Make sure you have enough cash to cover six months of expenses as a buffer against unexpected problems before you begin investing, advises Steve Cronin, the founder of DeadSimpleSaving.com.

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Invest worldwide: Diversify your investments globally, ideally by way of a global stock index fund.

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Get financially independent: Mr Cronin advises UAE residents to pursue financial independence. Start with a Google search and improve your knowledge via expat investing websites or Facebook groups such as SimplyFI.

Elon Musk refusing to pay Twitter travel expenses, report says

The world's richest person has moved quickly to slash costs at the social media platform

Elon Musk memorabilia auctioned by ex-girlfriend for $165,000

On Women's Day

Top investing tips for UAE residents in 2021

The five pillars of Islam

Elon Musk refusing to pay Twitter travel expenses, report says

The world's richest person has moved quickly to slash costs at the social media platform

Elon Musk memorabilia auctioned by ex-girlfriend for $165,000

On Women's Day

Top investing tips for UAE residents in 2021

The&nbsp;five&nbsp;pillars&nbsp;of&nbsp;Islam

The five pillars of Islam