Elon Musk has pulled out of his $44 billion Twitter deal. Now he is facing legal proceedings that could cost him dearly. But in court, everything is happening much too fast for him. If Musk has his way, the Twitter trial will start in February at the earliest.
True to the motto “a new round, a new mad dash”, this week also starts with news about Twitter and Elon Musk.
Just last week, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk. The reason: Musk had withdrawn from his 44 billion US dollar Twitter takeover after a long back and forth.
What is the current status of the Twitter lawsuit?
But Twitter didn’t just file a lawsuit last week. The company also filed for summary proceedings with the competent court.
The company wanted to hold a four-day trial back in September. Elon Musk is now opposing this. He wants to start the court proceedings in February 2023 at the earliest, as Bloomberg reports.
According to Elon Musk’s lawyers, the Twitter executives had “unfairly pushed for a trial at ‘warp speed'”. As a result, they say, the Twitter trial should not be heard until next year.
In a 14-page brief, Musk points out that Twitter’s proposed timeframe is an “extremely fast timetable for a case of this enormous magnitude.” Therefore, he says, the trial should start no earlier than Feb. 13, 2023.
Why is Elon Musk pushing for a later start for the Twitter trial?
According to the Bloomberg report, Elon Musk is accusing Twitter of a “tactical delay.” The platform’s executives thus delayed providing information about savings accounts. The request for an expedited procedure would back this up.
“Twitter’s sudden request for warp speed after two months of dithering and obfuscation is the latest tactic to obscure the truth about spam accounts long enough to corner the defendants,” Musk’s legal team said.
The core dispute over fake and spam accounts is fundamental to Twitter’s value.
The evaluation and analysis of Twitter’s existing spam and bot accounts is “extremely fact-intensive and expert-intensive.” The torjudicial exchange of information therefore requires a lot of time, he said.
Twitter ignores the fact that Elon Musk is the company’s second largest shareholder. According to his lawyers, Musk therefore has “a far greater economic interest” in the company than the entire board.
What are the chances of a summary judgment?
But whether the Twitter lawsuit will actually become a summary judgment will only become clear on Tuesday. Because that’s when the judge in charge plans to hold a hearing and rule on the case.
The Twitter trial will be held in the Delaware Chancery Court. This is what both parties had stipulated in the takeover agreement.
The judges there are experts in commercial law. As a result, cases of this magnitude are heard more quickly here than is usually the case in U.S. courts.
According to Bloomberg, “complex business cases” are usually “heard by a judge within six or seven months of filing” at the Delaware Chancery Court.
