Twitter says Elon Musk is making their trial ‘unreasonably elongated’
‘This very public dispute harms Twitter with each passing day’, the social media company said
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Twitter says Elon Musk is making the lawsuit between the two “unreasonably elongated”, and the world’s richest man is conducting a “sideshow”.
Twitter’s lawyers said that it was “imperative” for the trial between the two – which would determine whether Mr Musk will buy the social media site in a $44bn deal – to happen at the “earliest possible … date”.
Twitter is hoping that the trial will take place in September in the Delaware Chancery Court; Mr Musk has pushed for it to happen in February.
Twitter said these claims are a “contractually irrelevant sideshow that Musk wants to use to disparage Twitter and prolong this litigation."
Twitter’s shares have dropped by over a third since Mr Musk announced that he wanted to purchase the social media site, due to the billionaire disparaging it repeatedly.
"Millions of Twitter shares trade daily under a cloud of Musk-created doubt. No public company of this size and scale has ever had to bear these uncertainties," Twitter said, adding that “this very public dispute harms Twitter with each passing day Musk is in breach.
“Musk amplifies this harm by using the Company’s own platform as a megaphone to disparage it.”
As well as purported doubts about bot numbers, Mr Musk’s lawyers also claimed that Twitter violated the acquisition agreement when it fired two high-level managers without informing Mr Musk first.
However, Mr Musk has also alluded that he would make redundancies at Twitter, saying that its costs are too high. Staff have been discussing resignations within the company should Mr Musk take over, The Independent understands.
According to reports, if the trial begins in February and does not end by April, the deal will collapse given that the debt financing package committed by banks for Mr Musk’s acquisition expires in April 2023.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments