Musk countersues Twitter as trial date set
Elon Musk countersued Twitter on Friday, escalating his legal fight against the social media company over his bid to walk away from the $44 billion purchase, although the lawsuit was filed confidentially. Although the 164-page document was not publicly available, under court rules a redacted version could soon be made public. Musk's lawsuit was filed hours after Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery ordered a five-day trial beginning on October 17 to determine if Musk can walk away from the deal. Musk, the world's richest person and the chief executive of Tesla, said earlier in July he was abandoning the takeover and blamed Twitter for breaching the agreement by misrepresenting the number of fake accounts on its platform. Twitter sued days later, calling the fake account claims a distraction and saying Musk was bound by the merger contract to close the deal at $54.20 per share. The company's shares ended on Friday at $41.61, the highest close since Musk abandoned the deal. McCormick fast-tracked the case to trial last week, saying she wanted to limit the potential harm to Twitter caused by the uncertainty of the deal. Twitter has blamed the court fight for slumping revenue and causing chaos within the company. Musk accused Twitter this week of dragging its feet in response to his discovery requests, and Twitter accused him of seeking huge amounts of data that are irrelevant to the main issue in the case: whether Musk had violated the deal contract. (Reuters)