Twitter says Elon Musk’s argument for postponing trial “fails at all levels”

Twitter on Monday posted a response to Elon Musk’s Friday response to the company’s lawsuit against the billionaire, saying that Musk’s request to postpone a trial “fails at all levels”.

Why it’s important: A Tuesday hearing at a Delaware court will determine whether the trial continues in September.

• Twitter requested an expedited trial in a lawsuit against Musk last Tuesday.

Details: In the submission on Monday, Twitter claimed that Musk’s response does not deny that Twitter’s lawsuits meet the standards for expedition.

• Referring to historical legal precedents, Twitter argues that cases such as the lawsuit “are routinely expedited”[ads1]; because they “easily fit into expedition standards.”
• “The only remaining condition – shareholder approval – is expected to be met before the Twitter requests in September. Conclusions aside, Musk offers no reason to believe that the discovery must be so extensive that a lawsuit will have to wait until next year,” the submission states. .
• Twitter also reiterated that Musk’s problem with the number of spam accounts on Twitter “is a contractually irrelevant sideshow that Musk wants to use to degrade Twitter and prolong this trial.”
• In the lawsuit against Musk filed last week, Twitter called Musk’s exit strategy to use Twitter’s bot problem as a justification for withdrawing from the $ 44 billion deal “a model of hypocrisy,” saying Musk originally said he wanted to buy the company to help fix its spam issues.

The big picture: The submission marks the latest development in a messy legal battle between the technology giant and Musk, ahead of what is likely to be an even more messy lawsuit.

• Musk originally offered to buy Twitter at $ 54.20 per share, a premium to the trade price at the time and an even bigger premium today, in April.
• When the markets collapsed in the weeks that followed, Musk began to withdraw from the agreement, claiming that the company had not disclosed enough information about the number of robots on its platform – an argument that legal experts say will not stand up in court.

Go deeper: The merger period that could decide Twitter against Musk