A judge has scheduled a hearing for Twitter’s request to expedite a trial in its lawsuit against billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The social media giant is trying to keep Musk, the world’s richest person, on his $44 billion deal with them.
They launched their lawsuit after alleging that he wrongfully called off the social media platform’s acquisition.
Twitter says they only need four days to prove he should be forced to honor his agreement.
The company hopes to start the trial without a jury on September 19, but legal experts have predicted the case will take two weeks to hear.
Now, Twitter is seeking a court ruling to force Musk to buy the company for $54.20 per share, as agreed in the April 25 merger agreement.
District Judge Kathaleen McCormick, the Registrar of the Delaware Court of Chancery, has scheduled a 90-minute hearing beginning at 11 a.m. in Wilmington.
Alex Spiro, one of Musk’s attorneys on the case, did not immediately respond to ‘s request for comment.
The Tesla CEO pulled out of the $44 billion buyout, and the social media giant launched a lawsuit to get him to honor his offer
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal sent several tweets explaining how the company is fighting spam and fake accounts in an online battle with Musk
Last week, Musk said he was canceling the buyout deal over concerns about bots and fake accounts.
He responded to the lawsuit with a tweet explaining that his use of the colorful emoji was short for “BS,” a common abbreviation for “bulls**t.”
Twitter’s lawsuit includes the billionaire’s tweet, which includes the poop emoji.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, cites, among other things, Musk’s May 16 tweet as evidence that he publicly denigrated Twitter in violation of the merger agreement before going out of business entirely.
Musk’s tweet, which featured the smiling poop emoji, came in response to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who had sent multiple tweets explaining the company’s procedures to combat spam and fake accounts, a battle Agrawal described as “dynamic.” .
In another May 17 tweet, Musk appeared to encourage the SEC to investigate the accuracy of Twitter’s public disclosures.
His online posts are being presented as evidence that he pursued the takeover in “bad faith”.
But the heart of Twitter’s argument is that the world’s richest man is tied to the deal he signed on April 25 to buy the company.
The lawsuit states that the deal does not include any contingencies that oblige Musk to secure funding.
It adds that the billionaire waived the usual right to due diligence, which refers to the type of business fundamentals investigation he later pursued in relation to fake accounts.
Twitter shares rose nearly 8 percent to $36.75 on Wednesday, a sign investors see the company’s lawsuit as likely to be somewhat successful.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note that “many investors spent last night reading the case and have finally concluded that this Game of Thrones fight is in court.” will result in some version of a Twitter win”.
He wrote, “This will be an uphill battle in court with the fake accounts/bots issue at the forefront, but ultimately Twitter’s board of directors put Musk’s feet in the fire to close the deal at the agreed price.”
Judge Kathaleen McCormick, the first female chancellor in the 229-year history of the Delaware Chancery Court, has scheduled a hearing for 11 a.m. Tuesday next week to hear arguments in Delaware for an expedited trial
Twitter’s lawsuit includes a screenshot of the billionaire responding to his CEO with the poop emoji, saying it’s proof he disparaged the company in breach of the buyout deal
Musk responded to the lawsuit with a tweet explaining that his use of the colorful emoji is short for “BS.”
The lawsuit states that Musk “refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its shareholders because the deal he has signed no longer serves his personal interests.”
Twitter’s lawyers said the company was given little time to comply with Musk’s requests for information about fake accounts, arguing that they suspect he was attempting to use the data to form a competitor.
It said: “Relenting in its commitment to completing the merger, Twitter continued to try to get Musk’s team what it requested, while protecting its customers’ data and having very real concerns about how Musk might use the data.” , if he managed to escape the transaction.
“Twitter bent over backwards to provide Musk with the information he requested, including in particular the full ‘Firehose’ dataset, which he has been mining for weeks – and has continued to mine since its alleged termination – with the help of undisclosed data verifiers.” ,’
The social media giant’s lawyers argued that if the company continued to cave in to Musk’s demands, it would “subject Twitter to competitive harm.”
They added that although Musk said he would back out of the deal, he allegedly continued to mine Twitter’s sensitive data.