“Delay threatens irreparable harm,” said Chancellor
Twitter had asked for an expedited trial in September, while Musk’s team called for waiting until early next year because of the complexity of the case. McCormick said Musk’s team underestimated the
Twitter is trying to force the billionaire to make good on his April promise to buy the social media giant for
“It’s a very favorable ruling for Twitter in terms of moving things along,” said
Musk, the world’s richest man, pledged to pay
“It’s attempted sabotage. He’s doing his best to run Twitter down,” said attorney
Musk has claimed the company has failed to provide adequate information about the number of fake, or “spam bot,” Twitter accounts, and that it has breached its obligations under the deal by firing top managers and laying off a significant number of employees. Musk's team expects more information about the bot numbers to be revealed in the trial court discovery process, when both sides must hand over evidence.
Twitter argues that Musk’s reasons for backing out are just a cover for buyer's remorse after agreeing to pay 38% above Twitter’s stock price shortly before the stock market stumbled and shares of the electric-car maker
Savitt said the contested merger agreement and Musk’s tweets disparaging the company were inflicting harm on the business and questioned Musk’s request for a delayed trial, asking “whether the real plan is to run out the clock.”
“He’s banking on wriggling out of the deal he signed,” Savitt said.
But the idea the
Savitt emphasized the importance of an expedited trial starting in September for Twitter to be able to make important business decisions affecting everything from employee retention to relationships with suppliers and customers.
Rossman said more time is needed because it is “one of the largest take-private deals in history” involving a “company that has a massive amount of data that has to be analyzed. Billions of actions on their platform have to be analyzed.”
Tobias said it’s still possible that Musk and Twitter will settle the case before it goes to trial, since both might find a drawn-out fight or the judge's final decisions costly to their businesses and reputations. One option is that Musk could pay the
“Does Musk really want to run that company? Do they really want Musk to run that company?” Tobias said. “They could always settle somewhere in between.”
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