Elon Musk Adds New Twist To The Twitter Saga

Elon Musk versus Twitter is fast becoming battle royale.

It’s a battle of titans that will have important consequences for mergers and acquisitions in the future.

The world’s richest man and CEO of Tesla  (TSLA) – Get Tesla Inc. Report abruptly withdrew his $44 billion bid to acquire the microblogging website he defines as the Town Square of our time. Twitter took legal action to get Musk to honor his commitment. It is therefore no surprise that the two adversaries are bringing out heavy artillery to destabilize the other. The battle is primarily mental. They must send messages to the opponent to show them that they are ready to do anything to inflict blows that would prevent them from getting up.

Twitter Wants a Trial by mid-September

It was Twitter that struck the first blow by filing its lawsuit on July 12, just three days after Musk’s withdrawal, in Delaware Chancery Court. And in this document, the platform used the whimsical entrepreneur’s own tweets. The icing on the cake, the social network is asking justice for a quick trial.

The platform requests that the trial be held in mid-September  because the merger agreement between the two parties provides that if it is not finalized before October 24, each of the two parties can terminate it free of charge.

“Defendants’ ability to terminate the agreement before the presumptive drop-dead date of Oct. 24, 2022 is extremely limited and carefully circumscribed,” Twitter said in its lawsuit that you can find here. “There is no right for defendants to terminate unless there is a breach sufficiently significant to cause failure of a closing condition, which, after due notice, is either incapable of being cured or is not cured within 30 days after such notice.”

“Twitter has suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm as a result of defendants’ breaches,” the platform alleged.

Musk Wants the Trial to Start in 2023

Musk didn’t respond right away. The billionaire let a few days pass and has just gone on the counterattack. In their response to Twitter’s complaint, Musk’s attorneys are asking that the trial not be held until Feb. 13, 2023 at the earliest.

“Plaintiff’s proposed schedule would severely prejudice defendants by depriving them of a meaningful opportunity to take discovery, conduct expert analysis, and present their case,” lawyers of the billionaire wrote in their motion that you can read in its entirety here.