Judge Rules Against Elon Musk, Orders October Trial Over Twitter Deal
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Twitter Wins First Legal Battle with Elon Musk
A judge in Delaware Chancery Court ordered a five-day trial in October. Twitter had asked for an expedited trial in September, while Musk called for waiting until February 2023 because of the complexity of the case.
However, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the head judge of Delaware's court of chancery, stated that the case should be resolved quickly, agreeing with Twitter's claim that it could be harmed by uncertainty about its future as a public company.
"Delay threatens irreparable harm. The longer the delay, the greater the risk." McCormick added that the court was able to "quickly process complex litigation,"
"Those concerns are on full display in the present case. Typically, the longer the merger transaction remains in limbo, the larger the cloud of uncertainty cast over the company and the greater the risk of irreparable harm to the sellers."
Musk was supposed to pay $54.20 a share for Twitter but informed the company in July that he wanted to back out of the agreement.
"It's attempted sabotage. He's doing his best to run Twitter down," said attorney William Savitt, representing Twitter before McCormick on Tuesday.
Musk said he was terminating the deal as, according to him, the social media company had breached the agreement by failing to provide enough information on spam accounts and had misrepresented the number of spam accounts in its disclosures to the US SEC. He also believes that the social media company breached the agreement by failing to consult with him when firing senior employees recently.