Twitter notched an early win Tuesday in its fight with Elon Musk after a judge agreed to a fast-track trial on whether to force the Tesla chief to complete his $44 billion (R752.2 billion) buyout of the social network.
Musk’s lawyers had pushed for a February 2023 date, but the court in the eastern US state of Delaware hewed closely to the uncertainty-racked platform’s desire for speed and set an October start.
Billions of dollars are at stake, but so is the future of Twitter, which Musk has said should allow any legal speech – an absolutist position that has sparked fears the network could be used to incite violence.
Judge Kathaleen McCormick, who set a five-day trial and left the sides to work with the court to fix the exact date, noted that the “risk of irreparable harm” generally grows the longer a merger remains in limbo. After pausing the deal in May, Musk moved in early July to “terminate” his unsolicited buyout bid after he accused the platform of misleading him on the number of its so-called “bot” accounts and not being forthcoming with details.
Twitter has argued that his claims are simply an effort by him to back out of the deal, and its lawyer William Savitt said: “The continued uncertainty caused by Musk’s purported termination inflicts harm on Twitter every day, every hour of every day.
Experts watching the trial saw the relatively rapid timeline as a triumph for the social network, which is limping along while the buyout endgame remains unclear.
Source: eNCA
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The saga surrounding the unsolved mystery of Senzo Meyiwa’s murder continues with Kelly Khumalo’s sister, Zandile Khumalo, finally agreeing to her first public interview since that fateful night over eight years ago.
Speaking to eNCA’s Slindelo Masikane, Zandile addressed the issue as well as some of the questions the public has had about what happened that night. Learn more
