Elon Musk has cited spam and bot accounts as a reason for abandoning his $44 billion purchase of Twitter Inc., and Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) has been forced to send over papers from its former head of consumer products to Musk. However, TWTR (NYSE:TWTR) was exempted from releasing documents for the majority of employees that Musk identifies as critical witnesses on the bots issue.
Musk, whom Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) sued to compel him to close the acquisition, accused the firm last month of concealing the identities of employees responsible for determining how much of the platform’s client base consists of spam and bot accounts. He requested the judge to compel Twitter to reveal their identities. The communications company (NYSE:TWTR) has thus far provided the identities of “records custodians” who are less familiar with the in-question data.
In a one-page ruling issued on Monday, Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick mostly dismissed Musk’s request, ordering Twitter not to “collect, evaluate, or produce documents” from any of the other 21 more custodians Musk requested. The exception is former consumer product chief Kayvon Beykpour, who was sacked in May.
Beykpour was Twitter’s top product executive for years before he was abruptly fired by the company’s new CEO, Parag Agrawal. It was his product team that was most directly responsible for developing the company’s user base, and it is this base’s quality that Musk is questioning in order to withdraw from the agreement.
Beykpour And Twitter
Beykpour joined Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) in 2015 when the firm acquired his live video application, Periscope, and quickly rose through the ranks under previous CEO Jack Dorsey. Before he was fired, he was pushing TWTR (NYSE:TWTR) into new product categories, such as live audio spaces and newsletters.
The exits of Beykpour and Bruce Falck, formerly in head of revenue product, underscored Twitter’s dilemma as it sought a new owner, a predicament which has been exacerbated by the litigation. In the meantime, a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting initiatives have left some staff uncertain as to whether the projects or teams they are currently working on would be prioritized under the new leadership.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Musk’s attorneys have submitted a flurry of subpoenas to banks, investors, and attorneys involved in the deal in preparation for their trial in Wilmington on October 17.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) asserts that Musk, the richest person in the world and CEO of Tesla Inc., is using concerns about spam and bot accounts as an excuse to back out of the deal. Musk contends the corporation has not demonstrated that spam bots constitute for less than 5% of its active users, as stated in regulatory filings.
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