Musk targets ad tech firms in Twitter suit over takeover deal (updated)

Integral Ad Science Holding

18/08/2022 23:14

(Adds tweet from Musk)
    By Sheila Dang
    Aug 18 (Reuters) - Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who
is attempting to walk away from his deal to acquire Twitter Inc
 TWTR.N , is seeking documents from advertising technology firms
as part of his quest to gain more information on bot and spam
accounts on Twitter, according to filings in a Delaware court on
Thursday.
    Twitter has sued the Tesla chief executive, who has accused
Twitter of hiding information about how it calculates the
percentage of bots on the service, for attempting to walk away
from the $44 billion agreement. A trial is scheduled for Oct.
17. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2ZG2KW
    Musk's lawyers have subpoenaed both Integral Ad Science
(IAS)  IAS.O  and DoubleVerify  DV.N  for any documents or
communications on their involvement in reviewing accounts or
participation in any audit of Twitter's user base. 
    IAS and DoubleVerify, which are both based in New York, use
technology to independently verify that digital ads are viewed
by real people. Advertisers use the services to ensure the ads
they pay for are seen by potential customers and not automated
bots.
    Twitter, IAS and DoubleVerify did not immediately respond to
requests for comment. 
    In response to a tweet by a user who questioned how Twitter
audits its service and also linked to a Reuters story on Musk
targeting the ad firms, Musk tweeted: "Those are the questions
that Twitter is doing everything possible to avoid answering …"
    In a countersuit earlier this month, Musk claimed that
Twitter's monetizable daily active users are 65 million lower
than what the company has touted. Twitter has said it stands by
its disclosures.
    The metric measures users who log onto Twitter through the
website or apps that are able to serve ads or used paid products
like subscriptions, according to Twitter filings.
    

 (Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Leslie Adler
and Deepa Babington)
 ((Sheila.Dang@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646-983-0894))