UPDATED 19:06 EDT / JULY 19 2022

APPS

Twitter lawsuit scheduled for October after Musk failed to delay trial

Twitter Inc.’s lawsuit against Elon Musk over the Tesla chief executive’s attempt to cancel his acquisition deal will proceed in October after a Delaware Court today ruled against attempts by Musk to have the trial delayed until February.

Lawyers representing Musk (pictured) applied for a delay in the trial late last week, claiming that Twitter was unfairly pushing for a “warp speed” trial over claims Musk had improperly canceled his proposed $44 billion acquisition of the company. However, Delaware Court of Chancery Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick rejected the application today.

CNBC reported that Twitter’s lawyers, who had wanted a trial in September, argued that the timeline to hear the case was in line with similar cases in the part. The lawyers also said the quick trial schedule was imperative to stop the ongoing harm Twitter had experienced from the uncertainty of the deal’s closure and alleged disparagement by Musk.

Twitter’s lawyers in addition argued that Musk’s attempts to delay the trail may have been a play to “run out the clock” by leaving no time for appeals before debt commitments to finance the deal expire.

Lawyers representing Musk argued that the expedited timeline was too aggressive given the massive amount of spam data that needed to be reviewed and said Twitter was still not providing the information Musk had asked for. Countering the argument, Twitter’s lawyers said that questions about spam accounts were not pertinent to the case because “nothing in the merger agreement turns on that question.”

Twitter filed the lawsuit against Musk on July 12 to force him to follow through on the agreed deal to acquire the company. The suit alleged that Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders “because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”

“Having mounted a public spectacle to put Twitter in play and having proposed and then signed a seller-friendly merger agreement, Musk apparently believes that he — unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law — is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value and walk away,” Twitter stated in the lawsuit.

Photo: NASA/Wikimedia Commons

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