A judge issued an order in the legal square-off between the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and Twitter.
Kathaleen McCormick, the chancellor of the Court of Chancery in Delaware who presided over the hearing, ordered that a 5-day trial take place in October 2022. The date is about a month later than the September 2022 expedited trial date Twitter requested and four months earlier than the February 2023 trial date Musk requested.
The court’s Tuesday ruling is the first in the billionaire’s high-profile legal battle with Twitter.
The social media platform is suing Musk to force him to complete a $44 billion acquisition deal at the previously agreed price of $54.20 a share.
Twitter sought a 4-day trial beginning on Sept. 19, 2022, an expedited schedule Musk’s lawyers call “unnecessary and burdensome.”
The hearing came after lawyers representing Musk requested on July 15 that the trial be held on or after Feb. 13, 2023, calling the proposed 7-month preparation already “an extremely rapid schedule for a case of this enormous magnitude.”
Twitter disputed Musk’s request in a Monday filing, saying the schedule would cause the social media company irreparable harm as the uncertainties associated with the case would negatively affect the company’s public perception and employee retention.
“Musk offers no reason to think discovery must be so expansive that a trial must wait until next year,” Twitter’s attorneys stated in the July 18 filing. “The earliest possible trial date is imperative. This very public dispute harms Twitter with each passing day Musk is in breach.”
Meanwhile, Musk’s lawyers reinforced during the hearing their claim that Twitter, since the parties signed the merger agreement, refused to provide a key metric that determines Twitter’s profitability—the monetizable daily active users (mDAU)—despite multiple requests from Musk.
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