In the lead up to a trial that’s been anything but smooth sailing, Twitter’s deposition of Elon Musk has been delayed until October 6 and 7, less than two weeks before the official start day of the trial, in which Twitter seeks to force the billionaire to complete his $44 billion bid to purchase the social media company — which he is attempting to back out of.
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Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal also postponed his deposition on Monday.
Musk and Twitter are set to face off next month in a trial overseen by Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, who has been less than thrilled with Musk’s antics leading up to the October showdown.
Documents were posted on Twitter earlier this month showing McCormick’s not-so-favorable language when describing Musk’s requests, including his desire to push the trial back.
The Delaware judge overseeing Twitter Inc. v. Musk appears to be losing patience with the billionaire’s litigation tactics. pic.twitter.com/1UnI7YSsDr
— Mike Leonard (@Mike_S_Leonard) September 19, 2022
omg I can’t even summarize this smackdown with as much smackdown as it itself contains pic.twitter.com/wPML3wufBF
— The Chancery Daily (@chancery_daily) September 19, 2022
Prior to the documents being released to the public, Twitter shareholders voted in favor of Elon Musk’s bid to purchase the social media company, a decision that means an October trial between Musk and Twitter will proceed, although Musk is still hoping that the court will allow him to terminate the agreement.
The bombshell shareholder announcement came just minutes after Twitter whistleblower and former security executive at the company Peiter Zatko testified before congress.
Musk’s legal team sent a letter to Twitter prior to Zatko’s testimony which claimed that Zatko’s accusations were grounds for termination of the proposed purchase.
Zatko, the former head of security at Twitter, penned an 84-page long complaint against the company in August which claimed that Twitter mislead regulators in that it did not have a solid security plan against spam accounts and bots, also adding that the company was more concerned with overall user growth instead of weeding out the fake accounts.
Musk is claiming that if proven true, the allegations made by Zatko would mean that Twitter has breached part of its agreement with the billionaire, namely that Musk asked that Twitter provide an accurate reporting and methodology of finding precisely how many Twitter users were spam and bot accounts.
Musk has also subpoenaed Zatko in his trial against Twitter, joining the ranks of Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey whom Musk subpoenaed last month.
Dorsey is being asked to hand over a number of different documents for the upcoming trial, including information on Twitter’s internal metrics, Musk’s merger agreement, and spam and fake bot accounts on the platform.
It’s unclear precisely what information Musk is hoping to get out of Dorsey, but it’s guaranteed to be juicy.
Dorsey publicly backed Musk’s decision to acquire Twitter back in April through a series of Tweets posted shortly after the public learned about Musk’s $44 billion bid to buy the company.
“Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to extend the light of consciousness,” Dorsey wrote. “Elon’s goal of creating a platform that is ‘maximally trusted and broadly inclusive’ is the right one.”
Last week, a judge ordered that Twitter must hand over documents from a former executive to Musk as the legal battle began to escalate.
Musk, who attempted to back out of his $44 billion bid to acquire the social media company, cited his reasoning for not completing the deal as Twitter’s inability to provide him with accurate data on how many accounts on the platform are bot and spam accounts.
Per Monday’s new ruling, Twitter will now need to produce documentation from Kayvon Beykpour, the former General Manager of Consumer Product at the company who was a key component and contributor of the spam report that Musk was given when he first attempted to acquire the company back in April.
Earlier this month, Musk changed his tone again on his decision to back out of his bid to purchase Twitter, after a series of Tweets by the billionaire showed that given the right circumstances, the deal could continue on.
Musk responded to a Tweet which pointed out that Twitter reportedly used a “fake data set” when coming up with a number for how many accounts on the platform are spam and bot accounts by saying that the “deal should proceed” so long as Twitter could provide Musk with the information that he’s been seeking.
“If Twitter simply provides their method of sampling 100 accounts and how they’re confirmed to be real, the deal should proceed on original terms,” Musk wrote. “However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not.”
The Tesla CEO then doubled down and challenged Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal to a “public debate” about the “bot percentage.”
“Let him prove to the public that Twitter has
The legal battle between Elon Musk and Twit