Elon Musk’s legal team had written to court last week asking to order Twitter to hand over employee names so they could be questioned
According to a Monday court order, Twitter must provide Elon Musk with documents from a former Twitter executive who Musk claims were a key figure in calculating the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Bot and spam accounts on Twitter have emerged as a key issue in the legal battle over whether Musk, Tesla’s CEO, must complete his $44 billion (approximately Rs. 3,49,980 crore) acquisition of the social media company.
According to an order from Delaware Court of Chancery Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, Twitter was ordered to collect, review, and produce documents from former General Manager of Consumer Product Kayvon Beykpour.
Twitter and Musk’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Musk is the world’s richest person.
Beykpour, who left Twitter after the social media company agreed to be acquired by Musk in April, was described as one of the executives “most intimately involved with” determining the number of spam accounts in Musk’s court filings.
Beykpour did not immediately respond to a LinkedIn request for comment.
In her order issued on Monday, McCormick stated that she was denying Musk’s request for access to 21 other people with access to relevant information.
Musk’s legal team wrote to McCormick last week, requesting that she order Twitter to turn over employee names so that they could be questioned.
Musk accused Twitter of fraud earlier this month for misrepresenting the number of real active users on its platform, which Twitter denied. The company has accused him of breaching his acquisition agreement and wants McCormick to order him to complete the transaction at $54.20 per share.
On Monday, Twitter’s stock closed up 0.5 percent at $44.50 per share.
