Tesla chief executive Elon Musk is seeking documents from Twitter co-founder and fellow billionaire Jack Dorsey, as the SpaceX founder amps up his legal battle against the social media company, a court filing showed.
A copy of the subpoena showed that Mr Dorsey, who left Twitter's board in May, was asked to provide documents and communication about Mr Musk's agreement to buy the company in April. It also asked for communication on spam accounts on the social media platform.
The subpoena, served last week, requested documents and communications on Twitter's use of mDAU, a “key metric” used to measure the number of the platform's active users.
Mr Musk has claimed that Twitter did not provide adequate information on fake accounts, or bots. Twitter fought back, arguing that the Tesla founder was merely looking for a way out of the takeover.
Tesla shares lost more than $100 billion of their value after Mr Musk agreed to pay 38 per cent above Twitter's stock price.
In July, Mr Musk told Twitter that he was pulling out of the $44bn deal. Twitter sued the Tesla founder to force him to complete the takeover and Mr Musk countersued.
The deal could still move forward if Twitter provided proof that all of its user accounts are real, Mr Musk has said.
Mr Dorsey and Mr Musk have been publicly friendly for years. Mr Dorsey, who has praised Mr Musk in the past, had even invited him to Twitter to discuss product ideas.
After Mr Musk became Twitter's largest shareholder, Mr Dorsey encouraged him to join the board.
Mr Musk and Mr Dorsey are scheduled to meet in court on October 17 in Delaware to determine whether Twitter can force Mr Musk to go through with the purchase of the company.
Agencies contributed to this report
