Judge sets expedited Twitter v. Musk trial for October

A Delaware judge granted Twitter’s request for an expedited trial in its lawsuit seeking to force Elon Musk to uphold his agreement to buy the social media company for $44 billion.

The lawsuit marks the latest in a monthslong back-and-forth between Twitter and Musk over his April offer to buy the platform for $54.20 per share and take the company private. Market conditions have since depressed Twitter’s value. Musk is trying to get out of the deal over claims that the company has failed to cooperate with his endeavors to determine the number of fake accounts on the platform.

Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick — head of the Delaware Court of Chancery — ruled during a hearing on Tuesday that the case will proceed with a five-day trial in October.

Twitter is seeking to force Musk to buy the company by Oct. 24, and had sought a September trial.

In setting the October date, McCormick said, “The longer the merger transaction remains in limbo, the larger the cloud of uncertainty casts over a company and greater the risk of irreparable harm to sellers and to the target itself.”

Musk had requested a February 2023 trial, saying that additional time is needed for the court to review a case of “this enormous magnitude” before his debt financing expires on April 25, 2023. His lawyer Andrew Rossman said that since the two parties are in litigation, the Oct. 24 deadline is now an artificial one, without meaning.

Musk had said that fake spam accounts make up more than the reported 5 percent of its monetizable daily active users that Twitter claims.

“Musk has been and remains contractually obligated to use his best efforts to close this deal,” Twitter’s attorney William Savitt said during the Tuesday hearing. “What he's doing is the exact opposite of best efforts.”

Savitt said the percentage of bots is not relevant. “Nothing in the merger agreement turns on that question,” he said. “The agreement doesn’t even mention bots or spam or anything like that.”

“Buyer’s remorse can be an overused phrase, your honor, but it sure looks like what we have and the false accounts appear to be the vehicle,” he said.