Musk sues former Twitter CEO and friend Jack Dorsey

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sued his friend and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as part of an effort to pull out of his $44 billion deal to acquire the company Dorsey helped found, according to court documents.

Twitter and Musk are heading into an Oct. 17 trial in Delaware that should determine whether Twitter can force the billionaire to go through with the acquisition.

Twitter has sued a host of tech investors and entrepreneurs associated with Musk, including prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and David Sacks, the founder of PayPal.

Musk has claimed that Twitter has not provided sufficient information on the number of fake or “spambot” Twitter accounts, and that it has breached its obligations under the deal by firing top executives and firing a significant number of employees. Musk’s team expects more information about the bot numbers to be revealed in the court’s discovery process, when both sides must hand over evidence.

Twitter argues that Musk’s reasons for backing out are just a cover for the buyer’s remorse. Shortly after Musk agreed to pay 38% above Twitter’s share price, the stock market stumbled and shares of electric car maker Tesla, where most of Musk’s personal wealth resides, lost more than $100 billion of their value.

The subpoena was served last week. It asks Dorsey for documents and communications related to the acquisition, as well as information about the effect of fake or spam accounts on Twitter’s operations and the measurement of daily active users.

An attorney representing Dorsey did not immediately respond to a message for comment Monday.