Twitter has won its bid to fast-track its lawsuit to force Elon Musk to buy them, after the social media giant sought to resolve the case in a four-day trial in September, while Musk wanted to push the case until February 2023.
The trial will be held over five days in October, giving Musk’s legal team little time to process a mountain of discovery.
Delaware judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick made the ruling via a Zoom hearing, after announcing that she tested positive for Covid-19.
Twitter filed suit last week seeking to force Musk to complete the deal, and requesting a Sept. 19 start for the non-jury trial. Lawyers for San Francisco-based Twitter are arguing they need only four days to prove the world’s richest person should honor his agreement to pay $54.20 a share for the social-media platform.
Musk’s legal team responded that Twitter’s attorneys are unfairly pushing for a “warp speed” trial. The billionaire says Twitter violated the terms of the buyout deal by not turning over detailed information about so-called spam bot accounts within its system. The case requires a “forensic review and analysis of large swaths of data” about the bots along with other legal issues, Musk’s lawyers said in a July 15 filing, seeking a February trial date. –Bloomberg
Twitter had accused Musk of “attempted sabotage” of the social media company, and argued that they needed to fast-track the trial because uncertainty over the deal inflicts harm on the company “every hour of every day.”
www.zerohedge.com/political/twitter-wins-bid-fast-track-musk-trial