Delaware Chancery Court Chief Judge Kathaleen McCormick has set a five-day trial in October for Twitter’s lawsuit against Elon Musk. Twitter had asked for an expedited four-day trial in September. Musk’s attorneys wanted a February date.
The ruling in today’s hearing favored Twitter as the judge agreed with its arguments that a delay causes the business irreparable harm and disagreed with the Musk camp that a fall trial was unfeasible.
Twitter sued Musk July 12 days after the billionaire Tesla founder officially reneged on his April agreement to buy the social media platform for $44 billion. It asked the judge for a speedy trial – four days in September – to minimize the damage to the company which has been lingering in uncertainty for months. Musk’s team countered with a request for a Feb. court date.
Twitter’s suit said Musk “refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests…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.”
Musk has insisted that there are serious questions about the number of bot, or spam accounts on Twitter and his attorneys cited a few other reasons that they consider the deal null and void. The deal calls for a $1 billion breakup fee but Twitter says that’s only if one party bails for good cause. It has said it means to enforce the purchase. Wall Streeters think a settlement is more likely.
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