Elon Musk pushes for Twitter trial to begin next year

Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s conflict with Twitter is taking many twists and turns. As per recent reports, Musk’s lawyers alleged that Twitter officials are pushing for an 'unreasonably fast trial' over claims that the billionaire 'improperly cancelled' his proposed $44 billion buyout of the social media company, and asked that the case be heard next year instead, reports Bloomberg.  

“Twitter’s sudden request for a “warp speed” after two months of foot-dragging and obfuscation is its latest tactic to shroud the truth about spam accounts long enough to railroad defendants into closing,” Musk’s legal team wrote in a complaint filed on Friday in response to Twitter’s July 12 lawsuit. 

The two sides are pushing for the case to be considered on dramatically different timelines. Noting that the deal has an October 24 “drop-dead date,” Twitter asked for a four-day trial that would conclude before the end of September. Meanwhile, Musk’s team said that the case should go to trial no sooner than February 13, 2023. 

Musk had announced termination of the $44 billion deal to buy Twitter earlier this month. In a filing, Musk’s lawyers said that Twitter is in ‘material breach of multiple provisions’ of that Agreement, and appeared to have made false and misleading representations upon which Musk relied when entering into the merger agreement after which Twitter took the legal way to close the deal. The filing also said that the micro-blogging site had ‘failed to respond to multiple requests for information on fake or spam accounts on the platform. Needless to mention, ever since Musk announced his plan to purchase Twitter back in April, the billionaire CEO has accused the social media company of inflating its user base with spam accounts.

In a text sent to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on June 28, Musk - before pulling out of the deal – said that the social media company’s lawyers are trying to “cause trouble" by asking for financial details on how he is planning to buy the entity. "That need to stop," Musk said, as per a Business Insider’s report. Musk’s text was in response to the social media platform’s decision to seek information from Musk on how he’d finance the deal to buy the company. 

Last week, Twitter sued Musk after he decided to ‘back out’ of the deal. As per the report, the lawsuit was filed in Delaware's Court of Chancery, accusing Musk of hypocrisy. Twitter argued that Musk’s reasons for wanting to end the deal are “pretexts” and accused him of acting against the deal since “the market started turning.”  

It should be noted that the Delaware Court of Chancery has ruled on a number of cases where a company cited the specific performance clause to force a sale. None, however, were nearly as large as Musk’s Twitter deal of $44 billion. 

Meanwhile, neither side will have to wait for a long to find out when proceedings start. On Friday, Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormick scheduled a 90-minute hearing for July 19, which experts believe in some way can decide the fate of the legal dispute.