Yesterday, there was a hearing between Elon Musk and Twitter inching closer to the October trial date.
Key details
A hearing took place yesterday between Musk and Twitter in the Delaware Chancery Court to discuss issues within the case.
Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick said in a filing Friday she will consider several pending legal motions from both parties, such as Musk’s recent request to add allegations from a whistleblower complaint by Twitter’s former head of security, Peiter Zatko, to his counterclaims, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The chancellor accepted Musk’s requests to introduce claims from Zatko’s whistleblower complaint into his countersuit against Twitter.
During the hearing Twitter’s lawyers presented text messages that allege Musk wants to abandon his deal due to remorse not because of fake accounts on the platform.
He texted, after a speech by Vladimir Putin, that it might not make sense to go through with the acquisition “if we’re heading into World War 3.”
Musk also requested that the trial be pushed to November from its October date, but it was denied.
Why it’s important
Elon Musk has attempted to back out of his $44-billion deal to buy Twitter due to the platform having too many fake accounts and the company giving misleading data about itself for months.
Now that Musk has been granted to add Zatko’s whistleblower complaint that discusses the fake accounts and bots to his claims to his countersuit, it could potentially help his case.
The complaint follows suit with Musk’s claims that the social media is being untruthful about accounts on the site, which adds a little more traction for Musk’s claims.
Twitter is trying everything in its power to make Musk follow through with his deal. At the hearing lawyers for the company presented a text message that Elon Musk had sent two weeks after agreeing to buy Twitter asking his banker to slow down the process. The message read, “It won’t make sense to buy Twitter if we’re heading into World War III,”
Both parties continue the fight over this large deal as the trial date, now set for Oct. 17, nears.
Backing up a bit
The timeline between Elon Musk and Twitter is a lengthy one.
In April, Elon Musk announced that he held a 9.2% stake in Twitter, which made him the social-media company’s largest shareholder. Twitter’s stock price soared 25% after the announcement.
Later that month, the billionaire entrepreneur offered to buy all of Twitter at $54.20 per share—equaling about $44 billion. He said he originally invested in the platform because he believes it is failing in its potential to be the leading platform for free speech around the globe. In fact, he asked his 2 million followers if Twitter adhered to principles of free speech, and 70% said “no.”
Last month, Musk decided to back out of the deal, claiming there were too many fake accounts on the platform. Twitter has since sued Musk in Delaware Court of Chancery to complete the deal and requested the trial to take place in September. Musk, on the other hand, wanted to delay the trial until February 2023, stating that a case of this size takes time to prepare. Twitter was granted its wish of an expedited trial, with Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the presiding judge, setting a five-day trial for October.
Musk then countersued Twitter, stating his reason for the termination was due to Twitter not being upfront about the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Then, Elon Musk and his legal team subpoenaed Twitter’s founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, to get him to release documents that provide accurate information on bots and spam accounts on the social-media platform and now these documents have come out from Zatko and Musk and his lawyers have subpoenaed him as well.
The trial is set for October, unless it can be settled before that date approaches.
