By
Svetlana Soroka
April 18th, 2024
As part of the subpoena, Jack Dorsey will be asked about the impact of bots and spam accounts on Twitter’s business operations.
The legal battle over Elon Musk’s $44-billion deal with Twitter is taking a new turn. In Musk’s attempts to break his acquisition agreement, his legal team has subpoenaed former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey vs Elon Musk
Elon Musk has decided to call off his Twitter deal citing the high presence of bots on the platform. Thus, he is looking to end his agreement of buying the company for $54.20 per share. Since then, Twitter and Musk have sued each other. As part of the subpoena, Dorsey will be asked about the impact of bots and spam accounts on Twitter’s business operations.
Jack Dorsey stepped down as the CEO of Twitter last year in November 2021. Later he handed over the role to Parag Agarwal, the existing CEO of Twitter. During the deal talks earlier this year in April, Jack Dorsey had expressed his confidence in Elon Musk running the show. “Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness,” he said.
However, just a few months later, Musk’s legal is now alleging that the Twitter board members didn’t reveal true information regarding the bots and spam accounts as well as the company’s business operations.
However, Jack Dorsey isn’t the first Twitter board member to receive a subpoena. Twitter’s former head of consumer product, Kayvon Beykpour, and Twitter’s former revenue and product lead, Bruce Falck, have also received the subpoena. Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal had ousted both these executives in May amid the buyout turmoil.
Twitter Musk Trial to Happen on October 17
Last month, a Delaware judge confirmed that the trial for Twitter’s bid to get Elon Musk to follow through with his multi-billion dollar offer will happen on October 17. However, Elon Musk wanted to delay the trial till February next year. But the Delaware court judge said that Twitter could accelerate the proceedings to October.
Elon Musk is willing to call off the deal citing a lack of clarity on the bot data on Twitter. Musk stated that the Twitter board members weren’t honest with him on how much the customer base contributed to spam accounts or bot accounts. However, Twitter has refuted Musk’s claims in a 127-page document. Twitter also argued that the counterclaims “fail to justify Musk’s plan to dishonor the merger agreement”.