Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) paid its first debt interest payment, of US$300mln, in the wake of Elon Musk’s US$44bn takeover.
Musk took out US$13bn worth of loans with seven banks, including Barclays PLC (LSE:BARC), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) to buy the social media company last year, with estimated annual interest payments of around US$1.5bn.
Concern had been raised over Twitter's ability to pay interest on the loans, with a Financial Times report suggesting the lenders were relieved the money came through and that Twitter would have to file for bankruptcy if it did not pay.
Twitter has been struggling to shore up revenue, which had reportedly slumped by 40% recently compared to last year.
Many advertisers fled the platform over Musk’s controversial leadership, which has seen its workforce cut from 8,000 to 2,300 people since he took charge, slashing the human rights, accessibility and ethics teams.
Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE), Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB) are among 500 companies which have stopped advertising on the site, according to senior Twitter engineer Siddharth Rao.
Twitter has also faced legal action over its failure to pay rent on offices in London, San Francisco and Seattle, with the King’s Crown Estate among group bringing lawsuits.