Over $500 later, Fratamico received the statue. Then she had to determine what to do with it. She enlisted her boyfriend and fogeys and employed two movers. They managed to lug the hefty hashtag up three flights of stairs and situate the barely refined piece of decor in a nook of her condominium in San Francisco.
Fratamico, 32, was one in every of hundreds of Twitter workers who have been laid off shortly after Elon Musk acquired the social-media platform in late 2022. She needed a relic of the corporate she’d liked working at, despite the fact that proudly owning a large hashtag isn’t precisely sensible. When plugged in, it blazes with glittering lights. “It emits warmth,” Fratamico mentioned. “It’s undoubtedly heat and non-energy-efficient.”
It’s additionally one of many many Twitter relics now scattered across the San Francisco Bay Space and past. Musk hasn’t solely renamed the corporate to X since taking on, but in addition jettisoned the jovial blue chicken that was Twitter’s longtime brand.
Months after Musk’s takeover, the corporate started auctioning off a whole bunch of things. The choices included mundane provides similar to desks and energy strips and nicer perks similar to kegerators and espresso machines. Additionally up for grabs was a bevy of Twitter-specific decor, together with a picket bird-shaped espresso desk, a 34-foot-long optical-illusion artwork piece, and a number of other chicken, hashtag, and @ image indicators and statues.
Insiders and curious onlookers fired off tweets and chattered concerning the gross sales. Many requested: The place did the gadgets find yourself?
It seems that a number of individuals who had labored at Twitter through the years have been amongst those that snagged gadgets from the sale. So did a podcast producer and frequent X poster who has applauded Musk’s dealing with of the social-media platform. The whereabouts of different gadgets stay a thriller.
Mike Davidson, 49, was vice chairman of design at Twitter from 2012 to 2016. Perusing the web public sale, he acknowledged a portray he remembered strolling by on the workplace. It depicted a photograph of Barack and Michelle Obama hugging, which Obama’s account had tweeted when he received re-election. The picture was notable for breaking a file on the time as essentially the most retweeted put up in Twitter historical past.
Davidson mentioned he paid simply over $2,300 for the portray, and mentioned it reminds him of the position Twitter performed in historic moments.
“There have been plenty of gadgets on there that I assumed have been actually cool, however I didn’t purchase them as a result of they have been too Twitter,” he added concerning the sale. “I couldn’t see myself placing up a large Twitter brand in my den.”
Jon Ball, 41, an engineering supervisor at Twitter from 2016 to 2019, acquired two phone-conferencing programs for his medical-technology firm for about $250 every from the sale.
He additionally made a much less sensible buy. Ball doled out about $500 for a roughly 3-foot-tall hashtag statue, which now sits in his dwelling workplace north of San Francisco. He typically exhibits it off throughout video calls. “I feel I acquired a fairly respectable deal on that,” he mentioned. “My spouse doesn’t assume so.”
Ball’s spouse, Vina Vongvarotai, 41, mentioned she had Covid and was isolating from the remainder of the household on the time. “I’m unsure we’d have the hashtag if I wasn’t sick,” she mentioned. “I feel he took an excellent alternative to have enjoyable with the public sale.” She mentioned she nonetheless wouldn’t pay that a lot for it.
Omose Ogala, 28, who labored at Twitter as an engineer from 2017 to 2022, received from the public sale a portray of Ellen DeGeneres’s well-known Oscar selfie.
That picture, taken in 2014, rapidly turned essentially the most retweeted put up ever on the time, breaking the file held by the picture of the Obamas hugging. The identical artist, Debbie Faas, made each work.
Ogala has been house-hunting within the New York Metropolis space. “I’m looking for the appropriate home that can go well with me, however then additionally that might be good to hold the picture up,” he mentioned.
There’s an extended historical past of individuals coveting relics of company dramas. Some twenty years in the past, after the Enron Corp. scandal led to the corporate collapsing out of business in 2001, tools and different Enron-related gadgets have been auctioned off. One of the crucial recognizable gadgets, a giant tilted “E” signal, went for $44,000.
Advert government Lou Congelio, 68, acquired a unique Enron signal for $8,500. He displayed it on the workplace of his promoting company in Houston.
After a couple of years, Congelio mentioned he acquired a “mysterious name” from somebody representing an unnamed purchaser in New York. He bought the signal for $35,000. “I’d like to nonetheless have it,” he mentioned. However he added: “When someone presents you thirty-five thousand for one thing that you just solely paid eighty-five hundred for, you’d be sort of dumb to not not less than have a look at the provide.”
After Silicon Valley Financial institution failed in March 2023, individuals clamored for firm swag, spurring a rash of on-line listings for gadgets like an SVB-branded blanket or a cheese board.
Alex Lorusso, an government producer for a right-leaning podcast whose account was reinstated after Musk’s acquisition, mentioned on X that he snagged from the post-acquisition gross sales a bird-shaped signal and an “@” signal from Twitter’s headquarters.
In December, Fratamico, the previous Twitter knowledge scientist, threw a hashtag-themed occasion instead of a typical vacation gathering. She dubbed the event “#occasion,” adorned the cocktail menu with hashtag icons, and turned on her big hashtag memento so visitors may admire its glowing marquee lights. “It undoubtedly added colour,” she mentioned.
Fratamico’s boyfriend, Will Bertelsen, 33, mentioned the statue seems to be nice within the condominium. He additionally mentioned that though he’d recognized the statue could be huge, seeing it in particular person after they went to maneuver it was nonetheless one thing. “Actuality sunk in.”
Twitter’s indicators have turn out to be a logo of the chaotic rebrand from Twitter to X. One weekend in July, Musk abruptly introduced the platform’s new identify in a collection of tweets. Quickly after, staff arrived with a crane to dismantle signage exterior the constructing.
Matt Graves, 49, labored as a communications director at Twitter from 2010 to 2012. His spouse, Adi Smart, 45, additionally labored at Twitter for a number of years beginning in 2012, although they by no means met at work. The couple efficiently bid for a mixed-media piece from Twitter’s headquarters by artist Andre Petterson displaying an erupting typewriter.
“It’d be like if someone you like went bankrupt and you then’re bidding on the stays,” Graves mentioned. “There’s some disappointment there.”
Many onetime workers are nonetheless curious to know the place a few of the extra uncommon items from their former workplace are actually, similar to a big, cabinlike construction from the fifth ground of Twitter’s headquarters. “If anybody desires to purchase a classic 1800-era log cabin (no, actually) that served as a gathering room on the Twoffice, it may be yours for $800,” Graves posted on X at one level, with a hyperlink to the itemizing. What occurred to it couldn’t be realized.
Write to Alexa Corse at alexa.corse@wsj.com
Supply: Live Mint