Twitter Inc doesn’t have to hand over to Elon Musk most of the names of employees he says are key witnesses in their legal battle over his proposed US$44bil purchase of the social media company.

Musk, who has sought to cancel the deal, this month accused Twitter of hiding the names of workers who are specifically responsible for evaluating how much of the platform’s customer base is made up of spam and robot accounts, and asked the judge to force Twitter to identify them. So far Twitter has handed over the names of “records custodians”, who aren’t as familiar with the data at issue. 

On Monday, Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick mostly denied Musk’s request, ordering that Twitter needn’t “collect, review, or produce documents” from any of the 22 additional custodians Musk requested, except for one.

That exception is a notable one: Kayvon Beykpour, former head of consumer product.

 - Bloomberg