Elon Musk Subpoenas Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey As Lawsuit Fight Heats Up

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has subpoenaed former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as the multi-billionaire attempts to fight a lawsuit brought against him by Twitter after Musk attempted to pull out of his $44 billion deal to purchase the social media company.

Dorsey, who stepped down as CEO of Twitter last November and remained on the board until May, has backed Musk’s acquisition of the company tweeting in April, “In principle, I don’t believe anyone should own or run Twitter. It wants to be a public good at a protocol level, not a company. Solving for the problem of it being a company however, Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness.”

The idea and service is all that matters to me, and I will do whatever it takes to protect both. Twitter as a company has always been my sole issue and my biggest regret. It has been owned by Wall Street and the ad model. Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step.

— jack (@jack) April 26, 2022

Musk’s lawyers are requesting that Dorsey hand over any and all communications and documents related to the Tesla CEO’s acquisition, along with documents “reflecting, referring to, or relating to the impact or effect of false or spam accounts on Twitter’s business and operations,” that date back to the beginning of 2019, according to Variety.

The billionaire’s legal team is also seeking documents related to Twitter’s use of monetizable daily active users (mDAU). For Musk, this is seen as a key metric as outlined in Musk’s SEC filings to purchase the company. This metric has served as a sticking point for Musk, who argues that Twitter is overstating its active daily users and that a higher proportion of users are bot accounts.

The Tesla CEO initially pulled out of the deal over this issue and has argued that the underestimation of bot accounts has devalued the company and made the price of $44 billion far too high. Twitter, however, argues that Musk is using the bot issue as an excuse to leave the deal following a downturn in the market, according to CNN.

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The legal team has also subpoenaed other prominent Twitter executives such as the head of consumer products Kayvon Beykpour and product revenue head Bruce Falck — both of whom were fired by CEO Parag Agrawal in May, per Variety.

While Musk has pursued Dorsey to attempt to get a clearer picture of the inner workings of Twitter over the past two years, the social media company has also subpoenaed a number of Musk associates including investment firms, venture capitalists, and associates of Musk from his PayPal days.

Earlier in the month, Musk tweeted that he would go through with the deal if Twitter met his conditions: “If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms. However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not.”

Good summary of the problem.

If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms.

However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2022

The trial is set to begin on October 17 and last five days, however, it is possible that Musk will go through with the deal or the two parties would reach a settlement following continued negotiations about the social media platform’s future.

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