Musk's response to Twitter lawsuit to be made
public by Friday
A judge has ordered that Elon Musk’s
response to Twitter’s complaint on his effort to back out of a USD 44 billion
deal to acquire the social media business must be made public by Friday night
at the latest. In a Delaware courtroom on Wednesday, Musk’s attorneys wanted to
submit a public copy of their answer and counterclaims.
Twitter lawyers objected that they needed additional time to study and possibly redact Musk’s sealed filing because it “extensively” alludes to Twitter data and internal information provided to Musk. Twitter’s legal team stated that under
court regulations, a public version of Musk’s filing cannot be docketed until
five working days have passed. Few cases garner as much attention from the
public as this one, and Twitter is conscious of the court’s commitment to
allowing the widest possible public access to its proceedings, according to a
letter from Twitter lawyer Kevin Shannon.
Twitter has no intention of recommending
any more redactions to the defendants’ response pleading than are required. Additionally,
Musk’s legal team claims that there is no private information in Musk’s
application that has to be kept secret. Twitter should not be allowed to
continue hiding information that it does not want to be made public, Micheletti
wrote. With a bid of USD 54, Musk, the richest man in the world, agreed to buy
Twitter and take it private in April.
20 per share, promising to relax the
company’s content policing and eliminate bogus accounts. Twitter filed a
lawsuit to keep Musk to the “seller-friendly” agreement after Musk
said he wanted to back out of the deal in July. According to Musk, Twitter has
not given him adequate information regarding the number of phony accounts using
its service.
According to Twitter, Tesla Inc. CEO
Elon Musk is attempting to purposefully kill the agreement because the market
has deteriorated and the acquisition is no longer in his best interests. If the
other party is held accountable for the contract collapsing, either Musk or
Twitter would be entitled to a USD 1 billion breakup fee. Twitter wants more,
though, and is asking the court to issue a “particular performance”
injunction telling Musk to carry out the agreement.
