Twitter wins first legal battle with Elon Musk as trial to go ahead in October

theguardian.com:

Twitter has won the first legal skirmish in its attempt to force Elon Musk to complete a $44bn (£36.7bn) takeover of the social media company, after a judge ruled that a trial will take place in October.

Legal experts said the ruling in Delaware was good news for Twitter, which had asked for a fast-track process to settle the dispute. A Delaware judge said there was a “cloud of uncertainty” hanging over Twitter and accepted the company’s argument that a delay would cause severe damage to the business.

“Delay threatens irreparable harm,” said Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the head judge of Delaware’s court of chancery. “The longer the delay, the greater the risk.” McCormick added that the court was able to “quickly process complex litigation.”

Twitter is ultimately seeking a legal verdict that will force Musk to go ahead with an agreed transaction that values the company at $54.20 per share. Musk pulled out of the deal this month, citing concerns over the number of spam accounts on the social media platform.

A lawyer representing Twitter at the virtual hearing accused Musk of “attempted sabotage”.

“He’s doing his best to run Twitter down,” said attorney William Savitt.

On 8 July ,Musk said he was terminating the deal for three broad reasons: Twitter had breached the agreement by failing to provide enough information on spam accounts; that it had misrepresented the number of spam accounts in its disclosures to the US financial watchdog; and that it had breached the agreement by failing to consult with him when firing senior employees recently.

Musk’s attorney, Andrew Rossman, said the accusation that Musk was trying to damage the business was “preposterous.”

“He has no interest in damaging the company,” said Rossman, noting the