San Francisco: A US judge has ruled that Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s responses to Twitter’s lawsuit can be made public by Friday, as the micro-blogging platform needs more time to review what Musk and his legal team have documented in their reply.
Twitter, which has now dragged Musk’s billionaire friends along with Tesla into the legal battle that will start from October 17, is afraid that Musk may expose internal Twitter information and data he was given in his responses, which may be damaging to the company, media reports said late on Wednesday.
In its new subpoena filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, where the trial will begin in October for five days, Twitter seeks all of Tesla’s documents and communications related to Musk’s $44 billion takeover bid.
Twitter argues that Musk signed a contract to buy the company, and is using spam accounts as a false pretense to cancel the deal, reports The Verge.
Twitter’s subpoena outlines a list of 27 requests for Tesla, including internal communications at Tesla about Musk’s takeover plan, all communications between Musk and Twitter and between Musk and his co-investors (like Larry Ellison).
Twitter also wants “all documents related to the roughly $8.4 billion worth of Tesla stock that Musk sold to finance the takeover bid,” the report mentioned.
Twitter is also seeking information related to the $6.25 billion margin loan commitment that Musk took out in May.
According to another report, Twitter’s legal team in a subpoena in the court has asked for “extensive requests for communications, including achecklists, timelines, presentations, decks, organisational calls, meetings, notes, recordings” related to the deal’s financing.
The top investors mentioned in the subpoena are Marc Andreessen, founder of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), former Facebook executive and CEO of Social Capital, Chamath Palihapitiya and David Sacks who helped Musk with the formation of financial services firm PayPal, The Washington Post reported.
Twitter’s legal team has also gone after Tesla and SpaceX board member Stephen Jurvetson, and investors Jason Calacanis, Keith Rabois and Joe Lonsdale.
–IANS