Bird Statue Fetches $100,000 as Musk Auctions Twitter HQ Items

An image of Elon Musk is seen on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos in this picture illustration taken April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
An image of Elon Musk is seen on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos in this picture illustration taken April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
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Bird Statue Fetches $100,000 as Musk Auctions Twitter HQ Items

An image of Elon Musk is seen on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos in this picture illustration taken April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
An image of Elon Musk is seen on a smartphone placed on printed Twitter logos in this picture illustration taken April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

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, AFP reported.

An online auction of "surplus corporate office assets of Twitter" that lasted slightly more than 24 hours also featured a 10-foot neon light in the shape of Twitter's bird logo, which brought in a winning bid of $40,000, Heritage Global Partners auction service confirmed.

Among the 631 lots were espresso machines, ergonomically correct desks, televisions, bicycle-powered charging stations, pizza ovens and a decorative planter shaped like an "@" sign.

Musk in December said that severe cost cuts at Twitter had repaired the company's dire finances as he set out to find a new CEO for his troubled social media platform.

The mercurial billionaire told a live chat forum at the time that without the changes, including firing over half of Twitter's employees, the company would have bled $3 billion dollars a year.

Musk said he had been "cutting costs like crazy" at the platform he bought for $44 billion.

Just weeks into his ownership of Twitter, Musk fired about half of its 7,500-strong workforce, sparking concern that the company was insufficiently staffed to carry out content moderation and spooking governments and advertisers.

Musk said his strategy is to massively reduce costs while building up revenue, and that a new $8 subscription service called Twitter Blue would help with that goal.

Musk-led Twitter has been riven by chaos, with mass layoffs, the return of banned accounts and the suspension of journalists critical of the South African-born billionaire.

Musk's takeover also saw a surge in racist or hateful tweets, drawing in scrutiny from regulators and chasing away big advertisers, Twitter's main source of revenue.



Dozens of Exotic Animals Seized at Turkish Border

A woman covers with an umbrella against the rain during a summer storm at Kadikoy ferry terminal in Istanbul, Türkiye, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A woman covers with an umbrella against the rain during a summer storm at Kadikoy ferry terminal in Istanbul, Türkiye, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
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Dozens of Exotic Animals Seized at Turkish Border

A woman covers with an umbrella against the rain during a summer storm at Kadikoy ferry terminal in Istanbul, Türkiye, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A woman covers with an umbrella against the rain during a summer storm at Kadikoy ferry terminal in Istanbul, Türkiye, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Turkish customs officials in the northwestern city of Edirne discovered dozens of exotic animals being smuggled into Türkiye from Greece, The Associated Press said.

State-run Anadolu Agency reported that the mid-sized sedan with Greek license plates was carrying three kangaroos, three alpacas and one Patagonian mara in the trunk, and 12 parrots and 23 flying squirrels inside the vehicle. Many of the animals are juveniles.

Photos from the scene show the larger animals bound and squeezed together in tight confinement, while the smaller ones were crowded in cages.

The private Demiroren News Agency identified the driver of the vehicle as Yuksel D., who was subsequently detained by authorities.

All the animals survived and will be delivered to the Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks.