‘Musk’s $44 bn Twitter takeover deal draws investor suit over bot account claims’

San Francisco, June 8

After tech billionaire Elon Musk threatened to blow up the $44 billion buyout over the bot issue, a media report has stated that a Twitter shareholder wants a judge to order the microblogging site to turn over internal papers about spam and fake accounts. According to Bloomberg, John Solak, who owns five Twitter shares, sued the company in Delaware Chancery Court for records related to discussions between its directors and executives about problems with so-called bot accounts.

This week, the Tesla CEO said that Twitter is violating the terms of his $54.20-per-share offer by refusing to give him more information about how much of the platform's traffic is driven by fake accounts. He threatened to blow up the deal over the issue.

"Stockholder's purpose in seeking these books and records is to investigate the possibility of board-level breaches" of legal duties to investors over directors' failure to properly oversee public disclosures of the bot numbers, according to the complaint.

Representatives of Twitter did not immediately respond to an email message seeking comment on the suit.

The report mentioned that Twitter is incorporated in Delaware, home to more than 60 per cent of Fortune 500 companies.

Investors often sue in Delaware to gain access to files of companies incorporated in the state to collect information that can be used in lawsuits against firms or directors. They have to show a proper purpose for accessing the files, however.

--IANS