Twitter’s battle with Elon Musk over $44 billion deal heads to Oct. 17 trial
By Tom Hals
WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) -Twitter’s bid to carry Elon Musk to his $44 billion deal for the social media platform will head to a five-day trial starting Oct. 17, and Musk should reveal by the top of Friday any authorized claims he has in opposition to the corporate, a Delaware decide dominated.
Musk, the world’s richest particular person and chief government of Tesla Inc, has till 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Friday to file any counterclaims, in keeping with the order signed late Thursday by Chancellor Kathleen McCormick of the Delaware Court docket of Chancery.
Musk’s legal professionals have stated he may file counterclaims – basically his personal lawsuit in opposition to Twitter – through which he may search monetary damages for the disputed deal.
The Tesla CEO and SpaceX chief stated he was strolling away from the deal on July 8, blaming Twitter Inc for breaching the merger settlement by misrepresenting the variety of faux accounts on its platform.
Twitter sued days later, calling the faux account claims a distraction and saying Musk was certain by the merger contract to shut the deal at $54.20 per share. The corporate’s shares had been up 1.4% in morning buying and selling on Friday at $41.45.
McCormick fast-tracked the case to trial final week, saying she needed to restrict the potential hurt to Twitter brought on by the uncertainty of the deal.
Twitter has blamed the court docket battle for slumping income and inflicting chaos inside the firm.
The 2 sides had mainly agreed to an Oct. 17 trial, however had been at odds over the boundaries of discovery, or entry to inside paperwork and different proof.
Musk accused Twitter this week of dragging its toes in response to his discovery requests, and Twitter accused him of searching for big quantities of knowledge which are irrelevant to the principle challenge within the case: whether or not Musk had violated the deal contract.
The chief decide in her order appeared to anticipate discovery disputes to come back.
“This order doesn’t resolve any particular discovery disputes, together with the propriety of any requests for big knowledge units,” stated McCormick.
Musk additionally faces a weeklong trial in Wilmington, Delaware, starting Oct. 24. A Tesla shareholder is searching for to void as company waste and unjust enrichment the CEO’s record-breaking $56 billion pay package deal from the electrical car maker.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Modifying by Chizu Nomiyama)
