Musk seeks documents from friend Jack Dorsey in legal fight with Twitter

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has subpoenaed his friend and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as he tries to pull out of the $44 billion agreement to acquire the company Dorsey helped found, according to a court document.

Twitter and Musk are headed for an October 17 trial in Delaware that should determine whether or not Twitter can force the billionaire to go through with the acquisition.

Also read: Twitter responds to Musk’s claims, calls them excuses

Twitter has subpoenaed a host of tech investors and entrepreneurs connected to Musk, including prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and David Sacks, the founding chief operating officer of PayPal.

Dorsey has been asked to provide documents and communications related to Musk’s agreement to buy the company and about spam accounts on the social media platform. Dorsey resigned as the CEO of Twitter in November and quit the board in May.

Musk has claimed that Twitter failed to provide adequate information about the number of fake, or spam bot, Twitter accounts, and that it has breached its obligations under the deal by firing top managers and laying off a significant number of employees.

The SpaceX founder’s team expects more information about the bot numbers to be revealed in the trial court discovery process, when both sides must hand over evidence.

Also read: ‘I’m buying Manchester United’, says Elon Musk on Twitter, which he didn’t buy

Twitter argues that Musk’s reasons for backing out are just a cover for buyers’ remorse. Shortly after Musk agreed to pay 38 per cent above Twitter’s stock price, the stock market stumbled and shares of the electric-car maker Tesla, where most of Musks personal wealth resides, lost more than $100 billion of their value.

(With inputs from agencies)