Filing: Elon Musk's lawyers say Twitter is unfairly pushing for a “warp speed” four-day trial in September and ask for a court date in February 2023 or later
Elon Musk's lawyers say Twitter Inc. officials are unfairly pushing for a “warp speed” trial over claims …
BloombergJef Feeley
Context & Ripple Effects
Musk’s filing made trial timing the first procedural fault line in Twitter’s lawsuit: his team sought a 2023 start while Twitter pressed for an accelerated schedule. Within days, the Delaware Court of Chancery adopted Twitter’s expedited October trial timetable, rather than the later date Musk requested.
That compressed schedule carried into discovery, including Musk’s rescheduled October deposition, before the court later paused the case on a closing deadline. The sequence shows why calendar control mattered as much as the underlying claims.
First-order effects
Twitter’s push for an accelerated proceeding forced Musk’s legal team to contest the timetable immediately instead of preparing for a longer pretrial process.
The court’s subsequent October trial order gave Twitter the near-term procedural outcome it sought and denied Musk the requested 2023 timetable.
Second-order effects
Musk’s deposition and other pretrial work were pulled into the October calendar, increasing pressure to resolve the dispute before trial.
The case illustrates how expedited Delaware deal litigation can limit a buyer’s ability to use a prolonged court calendar as leverage once a transaction dispute reaches trial scheduling.
The trend: High-stakes acquisition disputes are increasingly shaped by whether courts impose accelerated schedules that prioritize deal certainty over extended discovery.
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.”
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.
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/..…
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.
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/...
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/...
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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/...
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…