The Washington Examiner reports that there have been some important new developments in the ongoing legal battle between Twitter and Elon Musk.
One such development is that Chancellor Kathaleen S. McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery has just denied Musk’s attempt to delay the trial.
“I previously rejected Defendants’ arguments in response to Twitter’s motion to expedite, making clear that the longer the delay until trial, the greater the risk of irreparable harm to Twitter,” McCormick wrote. “I am convinced that even four weeks’ delay would risk further harm to Twitter too great to justify.”
As we will see, though, it’s not all bad news for Musk.
Background
The lawsuit has to do with Musk’s decision to pull out of a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. Musk pulled out of the deal due to uncertainty about the number of bot accounts on the social media platform.
Twitter responded by bringing a lawsuit against Musk, attempting to force him to go through with the deal. Musk has responded with a countersuit of his own alleging that Twitter actually misled him about the number of fake accounts on the platform.
Musk and his legal team attempted to get the trial delayed in order to give them time to investigate whistleblower claims from Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, the former head of security for Twitter.
Zatko claims that there were significant security problems with Twitter, problems that, if true, would mean that Twitter breached the terms of the merger agreement. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, however, disputes these claims from Zatko.
Agrawal recently wrote a memo to Twitter employees saying that Zatko’s accusations amounted to “a false narrative that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, and presented without important context.”
Some good news for Musk
As stated at the outset, it is not all bad news for Musk. Although Musk failed in his attempt to get the trial delayed, McCormick is going to allow Musk to use the whistleblower claims during the trial.
The trial between Musk and Twitter is scheduled to begin on Oct. 17.
Legal experts seem to believe that Musk is not likely to walk away without at least paying a $1 billion termination fee.