Elon Musk has subpoenaed his friend and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as part of an effort to back out of his $44 billion agreement to acquire the social media platform, the latest move in a high-profile drama surrounding Musk’s whiplash decisions of whether to take over Twitter or not.
Musk and Twitter are embroiled in a long, drawn-out legal battle after the world’s richest man offered to buy the company, and then tried to back out.
The takeover battle is heating up now, with Musk subpoenaing Dorsey in his latest effort to abandon the deal.
Musk tried to abandon the deal by claiming that Twitter had failed to provide adequate information about the number of fake, or “spam bot”, accounts on the platform. Bot accounts have become a central issue in the battle over whether Musk must complete his purchase.
Twitter argues that Musk’s reasons for backing out are just a cover for buyer’s remorse.
Musk agreed to pay 38 percent above Twitter’s stock price as a part of the deal. But shortly after that, the stock market stumbled and shares of the electric-car maker Tesla, where most of Musk’s personal wealth resides, lost more than $100 billion of their value.
Analysts say Musk’s decision to buy out Twitter was all a publicity stunt, or that he does indeed have buyer’s remorse as he tried to flex his power and reach into social media.
Twitter and Musk are headed to trial in October, which will determine whether the company can force him to go through with the acquisition.
Over the past few weeks, Twitter has subpoenaed a host of tech investors and entrepreneurs connected to Musk, including the prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and David Sacks, the founding chief operating officer of PayPal.
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