Twitter v. Musk trial will start October 17th

Pack your bags for Delaware, folks! The Twitter v. Elon Musk trial is set for October 17th and will wrap by the 21st in Delaware’s Court of Chancery.

Judge Kathaleen McCormick issued the official schedule (via The Verge) following back-and-forth from the Musk and Twitter legal teams, featuring tons of legalese complaining about trial dates and other stuff. Most recently, that included a letter from Musk’s lawyers complaining that Twitter was being difficult during the pre-trial process.

Twitter initially wanted an earlier start date in September, while Team Musk wanted the trial to start in 2023. McCormick chose October, so then Twitter requested that the trial start on October 10th, and Team Musk fought for October 17th, arguing the extra week would be crucial to preparation. Twitter, on the other hand, wanted the earlier start date because it blames Musk for the company’s lower-than-expected Q2 revenue. It’s also worth noting the merger agreement has a ‘drop-dead’ deadline of October 24th, which may also be a factor in Twitter pushing for an earlier trial.

And so, here we are with a settled date. The decision should appease Musk’s lawyers’ complaints about Twitter’s lack of cooperation since there are now official deadlines for filing counterclaims, documents, discovery, witnesses and more — those interested can view the whole schedule here.

As a quick refresher, this whole debacle is about Musk’s offer to buy Twitter. Musk wants out of the deal based on claims that Twitter has more spam bot activity than it said it does. Twitter sued Musk, alleging his spam bot complaint was manufactured to get out of the deal.

Moreover, Twitter’s lawsuit points out that Musk removed a diligence condition from the agreement that would have given him access to non-public information about Twitter, and the company says it gave Musk more information about bots than the company owed him based on the agreement.

Some wonder why Twitter is fighting to make the deal go through when Musk no longer wants the company, and management under Musk would likely be terrible (employee morale plummeted after the Musk deal was announced, Twitter says in the lawsuit that employee attrition increased after it signed the merger agreement, and Musk publicly said he planned to lay off Twitter employees). The short answer is that Musk’s $44 billion USD (about $56.4 billion CAD) offer is too good to pass up, and shareholders stand to make a premium off the sale — especially given the recent stock price drop.

Anyway, we’ll likely see plenty more filings and legal complaining from Twitter and Musk over the next few months leading up to the October 17th trial start. It’s going to be a long few months.

Via: The Verge