The world’s wealthiest billionaire and the prominent social media firm are engaged in what seems to be an epic legal war that began Tuesday morning with the first hearing. To stop the billionaire from going on a possibly damaging search for internal documents, Twitter is anticipated to petition the court for a hurried trial. If Twitter gets its way, the high-stakes litigation in the Delaware Chancery Court might be concluded in a few months, but if Musk wins, it could go on for much longer.
Musk’s attorneys said in a court filing on Friday that “the basic disagreement over fake and spam accounts is important to Twitter’s worth.” It also requires a significant amount of fact and expert-intensive time for discovery.
On Friday, Musk requested that a Delaware court reject Twitter’s bid to have the merger case reviewed in September, claiming that it is an “unjustifiable” deadline.
After Musk said in early July that he was pulling out of the agreement, Twitter filed a lawsuit against him to try to compel him to complete the sale of the business. In September, Twitter requested a four-day trial because the agreement needed to be finalized by an October deadline.
“The basis for Twitter’s extraordinary expedition is the incorrect assumption that the Termination Deadline in the merger agreement is October 24, while glossing over the fact that this date is automatically postponed if either party files a lawsuit. Plaintiff’s alleged necessity for a trial in September has been made irrelevant as a result of the filing of its case “In a court document filed on Friday, Alex Spiro, Musk’s attorney, wrote.
It will be decided by the Delaware Chancery Court whether Musk is still required to buy Twitter. According to Musk, Twitter withheld information on the number of phony accounts using its service. Twitter claims that 5% of users who are actively using the service are bots, but Musk said he thinks the percentage is greater.
“After signing, the defendants immediately set out to learn how Twitter goes about detecting fake or spam accounts. Musk was shocked to see how rudimentary Twitter’s methodology was in a meeting with company leaders on May 6 “said Musk’s filing.
The court case is the most recent development in a story that has spanned many months and began in January when Musk began investing in Twitter. In April, Musk and Twitter finalized an acquisition agreement, but in the weeks since, Musk has voiced worries about spam accounts on the network, alleging Twitter hasn’t given him a reliable estimate of their number. Twitter has refuted the assertion, stating that it has sent Musk information in line with the terms of the purchase agreement.
Musk requested that the trial start no early than the middle of February 2023. Twitter sued Musk on Tuesday to compel him to execute the transaction.
Twitter said in the complaint that Musk “refuses to execute his responsibilities to Twitter and its investors because the arrangement he made no longer serves his personal interests.” Musk reportedly thinks that, in contrast to every other party subject to Delaware contract law, he is allowed to change his mind, trash the business, interfere with its operations, diminish shareholder value, and leave.
Source: ABC Live