Twitter, Musk Begin Battle in Court Over Attempted Cancellation of $44Bln Acquisition

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Legal teams representing social media company Twitter and entrepreneur Elon Musk appeared in a Delaware court on Tuesday to begin legal proceedings over Musk’s attempted cancellation of a $44 billion acquisition deal of the platform, which prompted Twitter to file a lawsuit to compel the deal’s completion.

Twitter’s legal team pushed for a trial on the matter within the next 60-75 days, placing it in mid-September. Media coverage of the deal and its challenges have harmed the country and will continue to do so, justifying expedited proceedings, the legal team said.

Musk’s team is instead advocating for a February 2023 trial date in order to engage in discovery to determine the number of bots on Twitter. Musk is attempting to cancel the deal over concerns about the number of fake and spam accounts on the platform. Musk’s team strongly believes that the proportion of spam and fake accounts is higher than the 5% the company reported as a basis for the deal.

The legal team representing Twitter addressed Musk’s claims about bot accounts, claiming that the company made clear that the 5% figure and the process used to determine it could be flawed.

Musk may be "running out the clock" to try and wear down Twitter and its business by asking for a later trial date, Twitter’s legal team also said.