The case between Twitter and Elon Musk densifies before going to court. The American billionaire was authorized on Wednesday, by the judge overseeing his litigation with the social network, to include the accusations recently made by a whistleblower in his arguments justifying the abandonment of the takeover of the platform, but the lawsuit does not will not be postponed.
The magistrate, Kathaleen McCormick, indeed considered that delaying the confrontation in court would risk further harming the activities of Twitter, according to the text of her decision.
At the beginning of July, Elon Musk announced that he was breaking the $44 billion takeover agreement with Twitter’s board of directors, accusing the company of not having respected its commitments by not communicating the exact number of inauthentic accounts and of spam. Twitter quickly filed a complaint to force the contractor to honor the terms of the agreement.
Charges to be considered by the judge
Going along the lines of Elon Musk, the platform’s former security chief Peiter Zatko accused the company of covering up vulnerabilities in its protection system and lying about its fight against fake accounts . Presenting himself as a whistleblower, he sent a long document to the American authorities at the beginning of July, but it was only revealed to the general public at the end of August.
Elon Musk’s lawyers have asked to be able to include these new charges in their defense. Twitter tried to push back against the request at a hearing on Tuesday, saying Peiter Zatko’s claims were unsubstantiated and including them in the case would be “futile”.
But the judge considered that Elon Musk had the right to modify his complaint. She stressed, however, that she did not wish to comment on the “merits” of these charges at this time, writing in her decision: “The world will have to wait for the post-trial decision. »
On the other hand, she refused, once again, to postpone the dates of the trial, which should begin on October 17 before a specialized court in Delaware and last five days. Twitter is already suffering from the resignation of many employees and “has been forced for months to operate under the duress of a repudiated takeover agreement”, she underlines. “I am convinced that postponing the trial, even for four weeks, would present a risk of further harm to Twitter too great to be justified,” adds the magistrate.