Microblogging platform Twitter is seeking access to Elon Musk’s text messages amid its $44 billion legal battle with the Tesla boss, new court documents suggest.
The social media giant has reportedly said it wants a search conducted of all of the billionaire‘s text messages during “the relevant period” for “material” related to its lawsuit.
Twitter sued Musk last month after the latter attempted to back out of his deal to buy the tech firm for $44 billion.
Musk filed a counter-suit against Twitter’s claim. Musk’s counter-suit was submitted along with a legal defense against Twitter’s claim that the billionaire is contractually bound to complete the deal he inked in April to buy Twitter, the Chancery Court in the state of Delaware said in a notice.
The 164-page filing was submitted as being “confidential,” meaning the documents were not accessible by the public, the notice indicated.
Rules of the court, however, require Musk to submit a public version of the filing with trade secrets or other sensitive information redacted.
A judge ordered a five-day trial over Twitter’s lawsuit against Musk to begin on October 17. The Tesla boss wooed Twitter’s board with a $54.20 per-share offer, but then in July announced he was “terminating” their agreement on accusations the firm misled him regarding its tally of fake and spam accounts.
Twitter has stuck by its estimates regarding accounts run by software “bots” rather than people and argued that Musk is contriving excuses to back out of the contract.
The social media platform has urged shareholders to endorse the deal, setting a vote on the merger for September 13.
