Twitter has asked the court to expedite the proceedings, citing risks from the recent economic downturn and being held in limbo by Elon Musk. The company requested an early trial by mid-September “to protect Twitter and its stockholders from the continuing market risk and operational harm resulting from Musk’s attempt to bully his way out of an airtight merger agreement.” In their response, the Musk’slawyers filed a motion asking the court should reject Twitter’s “unjustifiable request to rush this.”
Elon Musk moved to terminate the acquisition last week, saying the company hadn’t provided the necessary data and information he needed to assess the prevalence of fake or spam accounts and was “in material breach of multiple provisions” of the agreement.
In their Friday filing, Musk’s lawyers argued that “the core dispute over false and spam accounts is fundamental to Twitter’s value. It is also extremely fact and expert intensive, requiring substantial time for discovery.”
In SEC filings before the Musk bid, Twitter said that fewer than 5% of its monetizable daily active users are spam or fake accounts. However, Elon Musk thinks that he has reason to believe that the true number of false or spam accounts is substantially higher. In its lawsuit, Twitter said that Musk’s attempt to terminate the transaction only reflects souring market conditions that resulted in his personal wealth declining by more than $100 billion from its November 2021 peak.
Twitter argued that Musk hasn’t adhered to the terms, including violating a nondisclosure agreement and then bragging about it on Twitter.
