A Monday court order states that Twitter Inc. must provide documents from a former Twitter executive who Mr. Musk claimed was a key figure in calculating the number of fake accounts on the platform. Mr. Musk accused Twitter of fraud earlier this month for misrepresenting the number of real active users on its platform, a charge that Twitter has denied.
The legal dispute over whether Mr. Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc., must complete his $44 billion takeover of the social media business has made bot and spam accounts on Twitter a prominent issue.
Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered Twitter to gather, examine, and submit records from former General Manager of Consumer Products Kayvon Beykpour.
Requests for comment from Twitter and Mr. Musk’s lawyers, the richest man on earth, were not immediately fulfilled.
In Mr. Musk’s court documents, Mr. Beykpour was referred to as one of the executives “most directly involved with” deciding how much the social media firm to pay Mr. Musk. Mr. Beykpour quit Twitter after the social media company agreed in April to be acquired by Mr. Musk.
Unexpectedly, Mr. Beykpour did not reply to a LinkedIn comment request.
Mr. Musk requested access to 21 additional individuals who had access to pertinent material, but Ms. McCormick stated in her decision on Monday that she was denying his request.
Last week, Ms. McCormick received a letter from Mr. Musk’s legal team requesting that she order Twitter to provide the names of its employees so that they may be questioned.
Twitter has refuted Mr. Musk’s allegations that it committed fraud by inflating the number of actual active users on its site earlier this month. The business claims he broke his promise to buy it, and it wants Ms. McCormick to order him to close the purchase at $54.20 per share.
On Monday, Twitter’s stock increased 0.5% to settle at $44.50 per share.
