--- title: "Cheapskate Elon Musk Refusing to Pay Bills at Twitter" description: "Elon Musk's expensive Twitter takeover has had the CEO cutting jobs and costs left and right, and now he's reportedly refusing to pay the company's bills." date: "2022-11-22" modified: "2022-11-22" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-bills-twitter" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "the digest" - "twitter" --- # Cheapskate Elon Musk Refusing to Pay Bills at Twitter ![Elon Musk's expensive Twitter takeover has had the CEO cutting jobs and costs left and right, and now he's reportedly refusing to pay the company's bills.]() *TOPSHOT - SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk poses as he arrives on the red carpet for the Axel Springer Awards ceremony, in Berlin, on December 1, 2020. (Photo by Britta Pedersen / POOL / AFP) (Photo by BRITTA PEDERSEN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) \Image: Getty Images\* ## Bills to the Bin After demanding verified Twitter users [pay a monthly fee to keep their checkmarks](), the social media platform's new CEO Elon Musk is reportedly refusing to pay up on some of his company's own bills, [according to *The New York Times*](). Hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses and even office space have gone unpaid, according to the newspaper. Musk's loyal staff have been shrinking away from the phone calls of travel vendors looking for their money, leaving them unanswered. It's one of many dubious methods Musk has adopted to balance the budget at a company he's paid far too much for, at a sum of around $44 billion. [Culling]() half of Twitter's 7,500 workforce just weeks into his reign and continuing to [fire employees that have voiced criticism](), the richest man in the world has had no qualms with adopting either the most ruthless or most frivolous methods of saving an extra buck. "Elon has shown that he cares only about recouping the losses he's incurring as a result of failing to get out of his binding obligation to buy Twitter," an employee wrote on the company's Slack, as quoted by *NYT*. ## Scrooge CEO If the confidential sources are to be believed, Musk is also withholding money from other outside vendors, including not paying leases on the company's office spaces. Twitter's philanthropic projects, now gutted of employees, have gotten the short end of the stick, too. Donations to several non-profits which relied on the company's supposed goodwill are now [nowhere to be seen]() since Musk's takeover. Some other cost-saving targets include Twitter's [computing infrastructure](), its cafeteria, free lunches, and certain pieces of real estate. Perhaps Musk's most petty move is the cancellation of corporate credit cards given to employees. As a result, some have turned to their personal cards to cover travel expenses, but they worry that Musk won't reimburse them afterwards. Shocking as this may be to outside observers, and especially to many Twitter employees, this is pretty much the norm for [how Musk takes over companies](). He's worried Twitter [might go bankrupt under his leadership](), but even if it doesn't, he's certainly not winning many hearts and minds, or the trust of advertisers. **More on Elon Musk:** *[Elon Musk Has Reportedly Been Hiding That SBF Secretly Owns Part of Twitter]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()