Ken Griffin, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Citadel, was added to a sweeping list of those Twitter has subpoenaed in its effort to force Elon Musk to complete his $44bn (€43bn) purchase of the social media company.
he subpoena notice for Mr Griffin, whose involvement – if any – in Mr Musk’s proposed takeover of the company is unclear, was filed yesterday as part of a slew of document requests from both sides of the deal.
Twitter has sought information from more than a dozen investment firms that committed equity to Mr Musk’s purchase as well as the banks that had advised Mr Musk and pledged billions in financing.
Like many hedge funds, Griffin’s Citadel has owned both Tesla and Twitter stock. But the filings in Delaware Chancery Court are addressed to Mr Griffin rather than his company and list Mr Griffin as “an actual or potential” co-investor in the equity financing for the deal.
Zia Ahmed, a spokesman for Mr Griffin, declined to comment.
The subpoena asks for documents and communications related to Mr Musk and Twitter’s deal proposals, agreements, financing, and much more.
For his part, Mr Musk has requested records from Twitter’s deal advisers, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, to gather information on how the two helped steer the company during its negotiations with Mr Musk.
His legal team wants documents related to discussions about the proposed merger and analysis of Twitter’s financial conditions, as well as information about any talks “with or about other potential purchasers of Twitter” besides Mr Musk.
Both sides are seeking information to make their case ahead of the October 17 trial in Twitter’s suit seeking to force Mr Musk to complete the acquisition.
Mr Musk claims he’s trying to cancel the deal because Twitter failed to provide him with information about the number of spam and bot accounts on the platform.
Twitter says his bot complaints were a pretext for him to walk away and that it has provided him with its “firehose” of data.
Twitter and Mr Musk have also been fighting over the schedule of the public filing of Mr Musk’s counterclaims against Twitter, with the billionaire saying the social media company was abusing court confidentiality rules.
