Twitter is seeking to prove that billionaire Elon Musk tried to abandon the financing of his $44 billion acquisition of the social media company, while also investigating his motives to back out of the deal, according to legal experts.
Twitter has sent dozens of “civil subpoenas” this week to global banks such as units of Morgan Stanley, to investors involved in the deal and to Musk’s advisors, according to filings in Delaware’s first instance court over the past two days.
In doing so, the company is seeking access to documents and communications related to the deal and its financing, any information regarding fake Twitter accounts, and any information regarding possible impact on the deal from changes in the share price of electric car maker Tesla, of which Musk is CEO.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2022
The subpoenas are part of Twitter’s lawsuit once morest Musk seeking to get him to keep the deal at an agreed-upon price of $54.20 per share.
The trial is scheduled to begin for five days on October 17 in the Delaware Court of Justice.
Experts say the subpoenas indicate that Twitter is seeking to find out what lenders, investors and advisors were telling each other regarding Musk’s behavior following he sealed the deal in late April.
Suspicion of “Mask conspiracy”
“They suspect Musk is plotting behind the scenes to get the whole thing down,” said Minor Myers, a professor at the University of Connecticut Law School.
Musk had previously said that he would withdraw from the deal because Twitter violated the agreement by withholding data from fake accounts on the communication platform, while Twitter described this as a “distraction from the only important issue”, which is the terms of the agreement.
Musk also said he was abandoning the deal because Twitter had fired two high-ranking executives along with a third of its talent acquisition team, a backsliding from the company’s commitment to “keep the hardware of the existing ecosystem largely intact.”
Legal experts say that Musk cannot be asked to close the deal if the financing fails, provided he is not the reason for it.