Elon Musk’s date in court with Twitter is set down for five days in October: Tesla CEO has until end of business day to file counterclaim against social media company as he tries to back out of $44 billion takeover
- Musk backed out from buying Twitter after he claimed the social media giant misrepresented its bot user numbers, therefore breaching the deal
- A Delaware judge has now ruled for Musk to appear in court on October 17
- The billionaire and Tesla CEO has until end of Friday to file any counterclaims
- Musk had initially requested for a February trial to have the time he needed for a thorough investigation of spam bots on Twitter
- Musk also tweeted this week that Nicole Shanahan, wife of Google CEO Sergey Brin, should sue the WSJ after denying claims he had an affair with her
Twitter’s bid to hold Elon Musk to his $44 billion deal for the social media platform will head to a five-day trial beginning October 17, a Delaware judge ruled; he has until end of business Friday to counterclaim.
Musk, the world’s richest person and chief executive of Tesla Inc, has until 5 p.m. on Friday to file any counterclaims, according to the order signed late Thursday by Chancellor Kathleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Musk’s lawyers have said he might file – essentially his own lawsuit against Twitter – in which he could seek financial damages for the disputed deal.
The Tesla CEO and SpaceX chief said he was walking away from the deal on July 8, blaming Twitter Inc for breaching the merger agreement by misrepresenting the number of fake accounts on its platform.
He even tweeted a meme of himself gradually laughing hysterically earlier in July in reaction to the court ordering Twitter to disclose its ‘bot info.’
Elon Musk, who retrieved himself from a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter earlier in July, will have a five-day showdown against the social media giant in court starting on October 17. He has until the end of today to file counterclaims regarding the collapse of the attempted takeover
Twitter sued days after Musk backed out of the deal, as the company said the billionaire was contractually obliged to complete the merger at $54.20 per share. Pictured: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal
Twitter sued days later after Musk announced he was retrieving from the deal, calling the fake account claims a distraction and saying the billionaire was bound by the merger contract to close the deal at $54.20 per share.
The company’s shares were up 1.4 percent in morning trading on Friday at $41.45.
McCormick fast-tracked the case to trial last week, saying she wanted to limit the potential harm to Twitter caused by the uncertainty of the deal.
Musk had initially requested for a February trial to have the time he needed for a thorough investigation of spam bots on Twitter.
Musk celebrated the news that Twitter had been ordered to disclose the number of bots on its platform by a Delaware court after he said one of the reasons he pulled out of buying Twitter was because the company didn’t comply with his demands for data
Twitter’s shares were up 1.4 percent in morning trading on Friday at $41.45 after a trial date for its failed acquisition by Musk was announced late on Thursday
Twitter, on the other hand, has blamed the court fight for slumping revenue and causing chaos within the company.
The two sides had basically agreed to an October 17 trial, but were at odds over the limits of discovery, or access to internal documents and other evidence.
Musk accused Twitter this week of dragging its feet in response to his discovery requests, and Twitter accused him of seeking huge amounts of data that are irrelevant to the main issue in the case: whether Musk had violated the deal contract.
The chief judge in her order appeared to anticipate discovery disputes to come.
‘This order does not resolve any specific discovery disputes, including the propriety of any requests for large data sets,’ said McCormick.
A letter on behalf of Musk’s lawyer earlier this month asked the judge to order Twitter to immediately produce what it called ‘core documents,’ require Twitter to produce all raw data by August 1, and require the company to produce documents within 18 days of a request.
Musk also faces a weeklong trial in Wilmington, Delaware, beginning October 24.
A Tesla shareholder is seeking to void as corporate waste and unjust enrichment the CEO’s record-breaking $56 billion pay package from the electric vehicle maker.
Musk has denied any allegations reporting that he had an affair with Nicole Shanahan (left), wife of Sergey Brin (right), prior to their ongoing divorce
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Wall Street Journal claimed Musk slept with Sergey Brin’s wife Nicole Shanahan, 33, which allegedly served as a catalyst for their divorce.
The Tesla CEO tweeted on Wednesday that as a ‘public person,’ he himself would not be able to win a defamation lawsuit against a news organization, but that Shanahan should sue.
‘As a “public person,” standard to win a defamation lawsuit against a news org is almost impossible,’ he wrote. ‘They could say I’m Satan and the “source” is their psychic! Nicole is not a public person, so could win. I hope she sues them.’
Musk tweeted Wednesday that Shanigan should sue the Wall Street Journal, as she ‘is not a public person,’ and before later sharing in another tweet the ‘media is a click-seeking machine dressed up as a truth-seeking machine’
A couple hours later, Musk wrote that the ‘media is a click-seeking machine dressed up as a truth-seeking machine’ and said he had spoken to Sergey who confirmed he had not talked to the WSJ.
Shanahan’s lawyer came out swinging this week and denied his client had an affair with Elon Musk.
‘Make no mistake, any suggestion that Nicole had an affair with Elon Musk is not only an outright lie but also defamatory,’ attorney Bryan Freedman told DailyMail.com in an exclusive statement.
Divorce negotiations between Shanahan and Brin are ongoing.
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