On Monday, Twitter responded to Elon Musk’s Friday response to the company’s lawsuit against the billionaire, saying Musk’s request to delay the process “fails on every level.”
Why it matters: A hearing Tuesday in a Delaware court will determine whether the trial will continue in September.
- Twitter requested an expedited trial in a lawsuit filed against Musk last Tuesday.
Details: In Monday’s filing, Twitter argued that Musk’s response did not dispute that Twitter’s lawsuit met the expediency standards.
- Citing historical legal precedents, Twitter argued that cases like the one involving its lawsuit “are routinely expedited” because they “easily fit within the standard of dispatch.”
- “The only remaining condition — shareholder approval — is expected to be met before the September process that Twitter is seeking. Conclusions aside, Musk offers no reason to believe that the discovery should be so extensive that the trial would have to wait until next year,” the filing said.
- Twitter also reiterated that Musk’s problem with the number of spam Twitter accounts “is a contractually irrelevant sideshow that Musk wants to use to disparage Twitter and prolong this litigation.”
- In its lawsuit against Musk filed last week, Twitter called Musk’s exit strategy of using Twitter’s bot problem as justification for pulling out of his $44 billion deal a “pattern of hypocrisy,” saying Musk initially said, that he wants to buy the company to help fix his spam problems.
The big picture: The filing marks the latest development in a messy legal battle between the tech giant and Musk, ahead of what is likely to be an even messier case.
- Musk originally offered to buy Twitter at $54.20 a share, a premium to its trading price at the time and an even bigger premium today, in April.
- As markets tumbled in the weeks that followed, Musk began to back away from the deal, arguing that the company had not disclosed enough information about the number of bots on its platform — an argument that legal experts say would not hold up in court.
Go deeper: The merger deadline that could decide Twitter vs. Musk
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