Filing: Elon Musk's lawyers say Twitter is unfairly pushing for a “warp speed” September 2022 four-day trial and ask for a court date in February 2023 or later

Bloomberg 2022-07-18 Jef Feeley

Context & Ripple Effects

The scheduling dispute had already appeared in Musk's July 16 filing, with Musk seeking a 2023 timetable while Twitter pressed for a rapid trial. The fight mattered because the court's calendar would determine how quickly the acquisition dispute moved from allegations to a ruling.

The court ultimately granted Twitter an expedited five-day October trial, rather than Musk's proposed 2023 schedule. That decision made timing a source of leverage in its own right, not merely a procedural detail.

First-order effects

Musk's request puts Twitter's proposed September timetable directly before the Delaware court; the later October order rejects the requested delay into 2023.
Twitter gains a faster path to resolve its suit, while Musk must prepare the case on a substantially shorter schedule than his lawyers requested.

Second-order effects

The expedited calendar reshapes case preparation: Musk's deposition was later moved to October 6-7 ahead of the October 17 trial date.
A compressed path to trial increases pressure on both sides to resolve the transaction before a merits hearing, as reflected in the later conditional halt tied to an October 28 closing deadline.

Third-order effects

The sequence shows how court scheduling can become an enforcement mechanism in contested acquisition agreements: an expedited trial date can convert a contract dispute into a near-term closing-or-litigation choice.
For buyers and sellers, the Delaware court's willingness here to prioritize an accelerated timetable raises the value of litigation readiness when a signed deal becomes contested.

The trend: Contested takeover agreements are increasingly shaped by accelerated court calendars, with procedural timing determining leverage alongside the underlying contractual claims.

Discussion

@davidsacks David Sacks on x
Twitter is toast. https://twitter.com/...
@josephpolitano Joey Politano on x
“Twitter doesn't use automation/AI/machine learning to count bots” is empty criticism. Twitter has automated systems to delete bots! Twitter bots have by definition made it past automated systems! If you had a perfect system to count bots you would just use it to delete bots! htt…
@allezlesboulez @allezlesboulez on x
i guess when your client is the wealthiest man in the world you have to let him ghost write filings but this is embarrassing https://twitter.com/...
@nicktagliaferro @nicktagliaferro on x
after reading this I am even more confident that Twitter will get a rather large court-ordered payout from Musk when this is all over https://twitter.com/...
@themckenziest Lauren McKenzie on x
Elon Musk pretending to be shocked at the number of fake Twitter accounts after having the record number of paid followers........ https://twitter.com/...
@pt @pt on x
This Musk/Twitter thing feels like it's playing out like the election where everybody just puts out their preferred truth, and then in the end we can all say we were right and the umpire either called it correctly or we were robbed. https://twitter.com/...
@dmschmeyer D.M. Schmeyer on x
I'm begging people to Google the central limit theorem and random sampling methodology, for the love of God. https://twitter.com/...
@charlesarthur Charles Arthur on x
*after* signing the agreement to buy, Musk tried to understand how Twitter calculated spam? Not quite a model of due diligence there. https://twitter.com/...
@caylenb @caylenb on x
if im the founder of a VC, the first thing I want to do is publicly show that I do not understand anything at all about statistical analysis or MAU auditing. especially when it is in regards to a lawsuit on the grounds of “is this a good business” https://twitter.com/...
@jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x
He wants to damage the company even more. Musk Opposes Twitter's Request for Expedited Trial Over Stalled Deal https://www.wsj.com/...
@_elizabethmay @_elizabethmay on x
*shouts through cupped hands* He waived due diligence and signed the contract with specific performance terms! https://twitter.com/...
@cassiacurran Cassia Curran on x
*sigh* Random sampling is a far more robust way to to find the average of a population than automation/AI/ML. This is based on a core principle of statistics, Central Limit Theorem. Relatively simple explanation of CLT here: https://www.simplypsychology.org/ ... https://twitter.c…
@theenbyperor @theenbyperor on x
idk sounds like a sane sampling method to me, and no black box magic that can go wrong https://twitter.com/...
@robleclerc Rob Leclerc on x
Umm, no... Twitter used a random sample on N=100, with human curation to determine spam accounts. And they did this every day. That sounds pretty good to me. If they had relied on AI/Machine learning that would have been a problem. https://twitter.com/...
@itsbradross Brad Ross on x
Hoping the original tweet was ironic, but regardless, sad/worrisome when people on the “AI/machine learning” hype train ignore (naively or not) the fact that core statistical methods still provide the best data-driven answers to many questions... https://twitter.com/... https://t…
@cliffordvickrey Clifford Vickrey on x
It's funny that Elon pretends to be a math genius without knowing how probability works at its most basic level. Pretty sure they teach the central limit theorem in Stats 101 https://twitter.com/...
@imbernomics Scott Imberman on x
No machine learning? I can't believe they did not even use a logit. Real own goal there by Twitter. https://twitter.com/...
@davidsacks David Sacks on x
Plus no sense of humor. 💩🤣 https://twitter.com/...
@dkthomp Derek Thompson on x
5. This case was randomly assigned to to Chancellor McCormick, who in a similar case last year, ordered a buyer to go through with a merger even after COVID and the torpedoing of the deal's financing. Buyer was forced to go through with the acquisition! https://www.businesswire.c…
@anildash Anil on x
The fundamental flaw of most social platforms is a tech mindset that thinks the hard part is managing content, when the hard part is actually managing discontent.
@dkthomp Derek Thompson on x
4. Musk's final claim is that Twitter stopped operating in the “ordinary course” of business. I talked to Brian Quinn, a law professor at Boston College, about this. He said “ordinary course” claims have held up in the Delaware Court of Chancery. This could be Musk's best shot! h…
@dkthomp Derek Thompson on x
4 cont.: ... There's just one problem. Twitter says it repeatedly reached out to Musk and his representatives about an employee retention program. Musk didn't seem to care. At the town hall, Musk was noncommittal about ppl leaving, since costs needed to come down. https://twitter…
@dkthomp Derek Thompson on x
Elon Musk is in deep trouble here, for 5 reasons. 1. He's already arguably violated the disparagement clause in Section 6.8 of the contract by criticizing Twitter (see: poop tweets, etc). It's hard to avail yourself of a contract's protections if you're already in violation. http…
@dkthomp Derek Thompson on x
How the Musk-Twitter showdown ends. 1. Twitter's board has a duty to max return 2. Twitter, the firm, doesn't want Musk 3. Musk doesn't want Twitter Musk offered $54/share. Current price: $37. Negotiation begins by demanding $17/share for Musk to walk https://theatlantic.com/...
@dkthomp Derek Thompson on x
In my younger days (uh, April), I thought a Twitter power-user would be a fun Twitter steward. Welp. Market crashed, and Musk changed his mind. Today, his power tweets are an artillery of petards by which Twitter may hoist him in court. He's in trouble. https://www.theatlantic.co…
@dkthomp Derek Thompson on x
3. As many ppl have pointed out, Musk's second claim—that Twitter won't give him sufficient information about bots—is a little more plausible. But Twitter's response is compelling. Weeks after the agreement was inked, and they still sent over massive amounts of customer data. htt…
@dkthomp Derek Thompson on x
2. As many people have pointed out, Musk's primary claim that he can't acquire a company with such a huge bots problem is tough to make, given his stated preference to buy Twitter *so that he can clean up the bots* https://twitter.com/...
@bramcohen Bram Cohen🌱 on x
The narrative that Elon is trying to weasel out of buying Twitter because the price went down doesn't fit the data. The price went up after there were hints that he might buy it and went down to its former price after, so it seems the price is following him.
@marypcbuk Mary Branscombe on x
it's like the court schedule is on autopilot https://twitter.com/...
@davidlaz David Lazarus on x
He seems determined to ruin the company https://twitter.com/...
@zerohedge @zerohedge on x
Second Friday night bomb in a row from the Musk legal team
@kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x
Reminder that Twitter asked for things to be expedited, hoping to wrap this all up by late October (would have been ambitious regardless I think...) https://twitter.com/...
@reuterslegal @reuterslegal on x
Judge Kathaleen McCormick will hear arguments on July 19 for Twitter's request for a September trial in its lawsuit seeking to hold Elon Musk, the world's richest person, to his $44 billion deal for the social media platform, according to a court filing https://www.reuters.com/..…
@martinsfp @martinsfp on x
Oh *they're* the ones acting in bad faith. Riiiiiiiiight. https://twitter.com/...
@meghanbobrowsky Meghan Bobrowsky on x
From filing: “With the sense of humor of a bot, Twitter claims that Musk is damaging the company with tweets like a Chuck Norris meme and a poop emoji. Twitter ignores that Musk is its second largest shareholder with a far greater economic stake than the entire Twitter board.”
@proferictalley Eric Talley on x
When you're holding an out of the money option, it always makes sense to try to extend the expiry date.

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