Mr. Davis has instructed Twitter employees to delay paying various contractors or vendors and try to negotiate those bills down to smaller amounts, according to two people familiar with his instructions. The cost of one of the company’s largest contracts, with mega-consulting firm Deloitte, has been a matter of particular concern to Twitter’s leadership, which wants to cut the fees the company pays for security, tax filing and other services, the two people said. The company skipped payments to KPMG, an accounting and consulting firm that had worked on matters related to Federal Trade Commission compliance, they said.
While missed payments to those companies have now been paid, according to a person familiar with the expenses, it’s unclear if the company will keep their services beyond this year. Representatives from Deloitte and KPMG did not respond to requests for comment.
The company missed payments to and then renegotiated the contract with Carrot, a benefit provider for fertility services including egg and sperm freezing and in vitro fertilization, according to two people close to the company. On Thursday, Carrot informed Twitter employees that the amount of the fertility benefit would be cut in half in the new year. A Wortel representative did not respond to requests for comment.
Last week, Twitter laid off cleaning staff at its New York offices and 10 corporate security people, indicating it could close one of its two buildings there, two people familiar with the move said.
At Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters, where the company has missed rent payments, Mr. Musk has done the same, consolidating workers on two floors and closing four. He also canceled cleaning services earlier this month after those workers went on strike for better pay.
That confused the agency. With people crammed into more confined spaces, the smell of leftover takeout and body odor has lingered on the floors, according to four current and former employees. Bathrooms have gotten dirty, these people said. And as cleaning services have largely ceased, some workers have resorted to bringing their own rolls of toilet paper from home.