SAN FRANCISCO —Elon Musk marked San Francisco because the spot for X Corp. over the weekend, erecting a giant glowing X sign on top of the headquarters of the corporate on Friday.
On Monday, CNBC saw staff dismantling the glowing X, removing its lights and an arm of the letter, after the development drew several complaints from neighbors and city officials. The complaints said that it was unpermitted, is a nuisance and, in one criticism, that its flashing lights made it hard to sleep.
The saga over the glowing sign is the newest example of Musk’s impulsive approach to running the corporate formerly generally known as Twitter. Musk has slashed staff, named former NBCUniversal promoting executive Linda Yaccarino as CEO, and put core features behind a monthly subscription since purchasing the corporate for $44 billion last yr.
But perhaps Musk’s riskiest move got here last week when he modified the name of the corporate and repair from “Twitter” to “X,” a change that experts say could wipe out years of brand name awareness. Musk says that he believes X needs to be an “all the things app” that handles banking, messaging, and video in addition to social media.
“Time to update,” Yaccarino wrote in a post concerning the logo change on Friday.
City officials on Friday issued a notice of violation to X Corp. for installing the sign without approval. Thirteen complaints have been initiated with San Francisco’s Department of Constructing Inspections because the sign went up on July 28 alluding to an “unsafe sign,” and “work with no permit,” amongst other issues. In accordance with public records on the department’s website, representatives for X Corp. repeatedly declined to “provide access” to inspectors who visited the constructing.
City officials said in a criticism they were told by Twitter the structure was a “temporary lighted sign for an event.”
It’s possible that the sign is simply being temporarily dismantled for improvements or to get city approval.
This is just not the primary time X has clashed with San Francisco constructing inspectors: When Musk took over Twitter last yr, he faced probes from the town of San Francisco over constructing code violations on the constructing, including that some rooms on the office were become “hotel rooms.”
X’s headquarters is in a part of downtown San Francisco that has attracted national attention for elevated levels of homelessness and crime. In tweets over the weekend, Musk said the town was in a “doom spiral” but said that X wouldn’t move.
“San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we’ll all the time be your friend,” Musk tweeted.
A representative for X didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
CNBC’s Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.