Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick signed off on a trial schedule for the week in mid-October, court documents said. Twitter had pushed for an accelerated timeline in the case to prevent damage to the company, an order that was granted earlier this month.
Musk’s 164-page counterclaim filing Friday was sealed, however, meaning the arguments were not publicly accessible. The confidential response consisted of a counterclaim against Twitter, according to a summary provided by a court filing system. Confidentiality may be allowed for certain categories of information, according to the court, such as trade secrets, sensitive financial or business information, or personnel details, for example.
Confidentiality for a filing — like Musk’s on Friday — should only be granted “if the public interest in access to court proceedings is outweighed by the harm that public disclosure of sensitive and nonpublic information would cause,” court rules say.
Court rules specify that those who make a confidential filing in Delaware must release a public version within five days, though there are exceptions. The public version will contain redactions of specific confidential information.
Twitter sued Musk earlier in July alleging that the Tesla CEO and SpaceX breached its agreement to buy the social media site for $44 billion, in a complaint that accused Musk of violating rules and “hypocrisy.”
Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share in April, positioning himself as a champion of free speech and vowing to unblock the site from aggressive moderation tactics that he described as political in nature. He also pledged a significant portion of his wealth to support the deal.
Musk also received AIMING on spam bots, or fake or automated accounts, which he vowed to defeat “or die trying” if his bid succeeded.
But his view of the deal soured a few weeks later, after Musk tweeted that the deal was “on hold” pending an assessment of the percentage of fake accounts on the site. The U-turn coincided with investor concerns and economic pressure that took a significant toll on Tesla shares, which are tied to most of Musk’s net worth.
That sparked a public battle as Twitter tried to provide evidence for its estimate that spam and bot accounts made up less than 5 percent of accounts on the site.
Let’s talk about spam. And let’s do it with the benefit of data, facts and context…
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) May 16, 2022
Musk announced on July 8 that he was pulling out of the deal. Twitter filed suit a few days later, taking the case to Delaware court.
The trial is scheduled to take place over five days and end on October 21.
