A US judge has ruled in Twitter’s favour over a bid to expedite legal action aiming to hold Elon Musk to the famous $44 billion deal to buy the social media company, with a trial scheduled for October.
Reuters reported Twitter had requested a trial in September while Musk’s lawyers sought a date in February 2023.
CNBC reported Musk’s lawyer argued in a preliminary hearing the expedited timeline didn’t give his team enough time sufficiently review data Twitter provided to verify the percentage of spam accounts on the platform.
Twitter’s lawyers apparently argued a quick trial was imperative to stop ongoing harm the company has experienced due to alleged disparagement by Musk.
Yahoo Finance reported the judge warned of potential “irreparable harm to the seller” if the case was not heard swiftly.
CNBC added Twitter’s lawyer argued Musk’s attempts to delay the trial may be a ploy to expend time ahead of a deadline in late October after which either party could abandon the deal.
Musk has long speculated Twitter has more bots and spam on its platform than publicly stated and had not complied with its contractual obligations to provide him with sufficient data related to this.
Twitter sued Musk in an attempt to force through his proposed takeover, arguing the billionaire had refused to honour his obligations.
Musk’s lawyers previously claimed Twitter breached multiple provisions of a deal struck in April.
