Records made public on Monday show that Dorsey was served with a legal order to provide Musk with any communications or documents related to the purchase agreement signed in April, as well as information relating to fake or spam accounts or that how Twitter calculates the number of its active users.
Elon Musk. Photo: Tumisu from Pixabay
SAN FRANCISCO, UNITED STATES – Elon Musk has served former Twitter chief Jack Dorsey with a call for material to help him exit his $44 billion acquisition of the social media giant, as was agreed upon.
Records made public on Monday show that Dorsey was served with a legal order to provide Musk with any communications or documents related to the purchase agreement signed in April, as well as information relating to fake or spam accounts or that how Twitter calculates the number of its active users.
The call seeks anything Dorsey has on topics dating back to January 2019.
Tesla boss Musk, the world’s richest man, has accused Twitter of fraud, claiming the company misled him about key aspects of its business, particularly the number of accounts it actually has. spam or automated “bots” instead of humans.
Twitter has stuck to its estimates that bots make up less than five percent of users.
Twitter also disputed Musk’s assertion that he has the right to walk away if his bot count turns out to be wrong, as he did not request information on that topic when he made the buyout offer.
The company accuses Musk of concocting a story to escape a merger deal he no longer found attractive.
“Musk’s counterclaims, based on distortion, misrepresentation and outright fraud, change nothing,” Twitter said in a court filing.
Rival lawyers have been issuing subpoenas for weeks seeking documents or depositions from a wide range of people connected to the acquisition, the running of Twitter’s business and even a holding company formed by Musk.
Twitter co-founder Dorsey in November last year completed his second stint as the company’s boss and had expressed support for Musk’s takeover.
The agreement with Twitter included a provision that if the agreement was terminated, the party in breach would pay a termination fee of $1 billion under certain circumstances.
Billions of dollars are at stake, but so is the future of Twitter, which Musk has said must allow all legal speech — an absolutist position that has fueled fears the network could be used to incite violence.
The legal battle is gathering pace as preparations begin for an October trial in Delaware’s Court of Chancery, which specializes in complex, high-stakes business battles.
Twitter has asked shareholders to approve the deal, setting a vote on the merger for September 13.
While fielding questions at a recent Tesla shareholder meeting, Musk was asked if his potential ownership of Twitter could distract from his direction of the electric car company.
“I think Tesla, you know, would still do very well even if I got abducted by aliens, or went back to my home planet,” he joked, drawing laughter and applause.
“To be honest, I don’t have an easy answer,” added Musk.
He assured shareholders that, for now, he has no plans to step down from his top role at Tesla.
