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Doesn't Google own a portion of Uber? Can't they use that for access?

Being a shareholder doesn't usually give you access to non-public materials.

They'll be able to get emails, technical docs, and deposition testimony via the court system.

I'm totally uneducated about things like this. Can someone explain if this could ever happen? What really stops activist investors from demanding logs from a web company, for instance?

Maybe the fact that they are not operating the company. They maybe have a board seat. They can use that vote to get rid of the CEO and hire a new one. That CEO can then decide to give them access to files.

CEOs of delaware corps have to do whats in the best interest of the company. It is probably not in the best interest of the company to reveal documents to a shareholder for the purpose of being successfully sued by that shareholder.

Its probably entirely impossible for a random investor to demand shit.

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