Twitter won the first battle in its war against Elon Musk, and the trial already has a start date

The Delaware court in charge of the lawsuit against the social network Twitter against Elon Musk accepted the plaintiff’s request and granted a quick test in which the future of the company will be decided. instances will start next October.

The maximum period of duration, in principle, it will be five daysas decided on Tuesday by the commercial court in charge of the case, which accepted the social network’s request to proceed on a fast track, according to US media.

Twitter, which wants to force Musk to complete the acquisition of the company for the agreed $ 44,000 million, had asked the Wilmington court to investigate the matter “as soon as possible” given the damage it is suffering from the slowdown in the operation. .

While the billionaire entrepreneur asked for the trial to begin in February 2023 as soon as possible. In this battle of times, the most advantaged is Twitter.

The intention of the entrepreneur and his lawyers was to delay its start with the aim of gathering more information on the functioning of Twitter at the time of check for fake accountsWhat’s on the platform.

He also claimed that the agreement reached with several banks to finance the purchase of the application does not expire until April 2023therefore, if the situation is clarified, the funds necessary for the acquisition of the social network will continue to be within their reach.

In court records, Musk’s legal team insisted that the “fake accounts and ‘spam’ controversy is critical to Twitter’s value” and requested “substantial time” for an investigation, deeming it “unnecessary” proceed. “dizzying schedule”.

On the other hand, the company stressed that every day passes its interests are damaged by the maneuver of Musk, who decided to cancel the purchase of Twitter that he had consented to last April because the platform had deceived him and had not provided him with the data he requested.

In recent weeks, the Twitter share price has suffered some setbacks, due to the comings and goings of the agreement and the doubts shown by the tycoon about the site’s work to keep itself clean.

The real number of false accounts, the axis of the conflict

The main allusion, above all, to the data on the number of fake or “spam” (“bot”) accounts on the social network, which the company estimates at around 5% but which according to him is much higher.

For many analysts, the “bot” issue is simply Musk’s excuse to back out of an operation that seems increasingly ruinous: Twitter is trading under $ 40, a far cry from the $ 54.20 per share that Musk agreed to pay, while Tesla stock, the main asset of the businessman’s fortune, fell sharply this year.

In response, Twitter filed a lawsuit before this commercial litigation court with the aim of forcing Musk to close the deal on agreed terms.

Today Judge Kathaleen McCormick held a first hearing to address the calendar, in which she leaned on the arguments put forward by Twitter, asking for a four-day trial to be started in September. “The reality is that the delay threatens sellers with irreparable damage,” McCormick acknowledged.

With information from agencies.

SL