Twitter subpoenas records from Morgan Stanley amid Elon Musk lawsuit

Twitter has subpoenaed records from Morgan Stanley as part of its ongoing legal battle against Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Morgan Stanley was Musk’s chief financial adviser during his bid to acquire the social media company for $44 billion. The investment management and financial services company also pledged up to $5.5 billion in financing for the buyout.

Twitter filed a series of subpoenas that were posted Monday in Delaware Chancery Court. As could be seen in the documents, Twitter is requiring information not just from Morgan Stanley — documents from firms such as Bank of America, Barclays PLC, BNP Paribas, Citigroup Inc., and a number of other banks were also requested by the social media company. 

As noted in a BNN Bloomberg report, some of the documents that Twitter is requesting are related to Elon Musk’s initial plans to partially fund his Twitter purchase with a margin loan tied to his stake at electric vehicle maker Tesla. Musk later dropped the margin loan, providing additional equity financing instead.  

Twitter’s pre-trial requests for information from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and other financial institutions are part of the social media company’s efforts to acquire communications and documents about Elon Musk’s buyout plans. Musk had withdrawn his bid for Twitter over the company’s alleged lack of transparency about its bot and spam data. 

In its lawsuit against Musk, Twitter had alleged that the Tesla CEO was simply using his bot account claims as a pretext to walk away from the $44 billion deal, which has already been approved by Twitter’s Board of Directors. The suit aims to compel Musk to complete his acquisition of Twitter. 

Twitter’s case against Elon Musk will be decided by Delaware Chancery Court judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, who has scheduled a five-day trial starting October 17, 2022. It should be noted that some analysts favor Twitter as the potential winner in its case against Musk, especially considering that Judge McCormick is one of the few judges who has ordered a corporate buyout in the past.