The judge overseeing the Twitter/Elon Musk case is giving Musk access to evidence from one former Twitter executive but rejected his request for documents from 21 other potential witnesses. As previously reported, Musk was seeking evidence from employees responsible for calculating spam-account estimates and reportedly claimed Twitter was hiding key witnesses.
In response, Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled yesterday that Twitter “is required to collect, review, and produce documents from Kayvon Beykpour,” the recently fired head of Twitter’s consumer product group. But Twitter “is not required to collect, review, or produce documents from any other of the defendants’ proposed 22 additional custodians. The plaintiff need only collect, review, and produce documents from the 41 custodians to which plaintiff has agreed to date and Mr. Beykpour.”
Musk’s request was part of his effort to disprove Twitter’s estimate that fewer than 5 percent of its monetizable daily active users (mDAU) are spam or fake.
Musk: Beykpour played key role in spam estimate
Though Musk’s letter detailing his request was filed under seal, his response to Twitter’s lawsuit briefly discussed Beykpour.
Musk accused Twitter of firing Beykpour while the merger was pending “without seeking the Musk Parties’ consent.” Beykpour was fired in May after seven years at Twitter. CEO Parag Agrawal “asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction,” Beykpour wrote at the time.
Musk’s response to Twitter’s lawsuit said Beykpour “was the head of all things consumer-facing for Twitter and took a high-profile role on Twitter’s investor calls. He was therefore one of the Twitter executives that the Musk Parties believe would have been most intimately involved with how Twitter calculated its mDAU, how it suspended or moderated accounts on its platform, and how it determined that there was always less than 5 percent spam or false accounts within mDAU on every day of every month of every quarter for all time.”
Twitter sued Musk after he tried to back out of his commitment to buy the company for $44 billion. The lawsuit aims to force Musk to complete the transaction, and a trial is scheduled for October 17.
Musk’s argument centers on his unproven claim that Twitter’s spam account estimate is incorrect. Twitter says the estimate is accurate and that Musk has no right to exit the merger agreement based on the number of spam accounts.
