Twitter Sued : Claims Over $14 Million in Unpaid Bills

In the latest development of the ongoing saga between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter, it has been revealed that some of the alleged unpaid bills relate to work done by the social media platform to close the contentious acquisition deal with Musk himself. As the deal came together last fall, Twitter executives were reportedly racing to complete it and arranged last-minute charter flights for then-Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland. However, after the deal closed, Twitter refused to pay for the flights, with head of global strategic sourcing Marty O'Neill arguing that only designated representatives were allowed to book flights through the charter. Another Twitter worker claimed that former CEO Parag Agrawal had approved the flights, but O'Neill responded that "new management is not going to budge." In response, the air-charter company, Private Jet Services Group, filed a lawsuit seeking $197,725, which has now been voluntarily dismissed with no comment from either side. Meanwhile, Tesla had been facing its own financial challenges, with CEO Elon Musk stating that the company was not behind on payments to suppliers because of a lack of funds but because it was "arguing whether the parts are right." The automaker had also been seeking rent reductions from some landlords in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic as it, along with many other companies, scrambled to conserve cash.