Elon Musk Asks Trial Against Twitter To Be Held Five Days Since October 17, Twitter Is Silent

JAKARTA - Elon Musk asked a judge to schedule a five-day trial starting October 17 instead of October 10 as requested by Twitter Inc, to finalize its bid to abandon a $44 billion deal to acquire the social media platform, according to a court filing on Tuesday, July 26.

A lawyer for Musk, the world's richest man, said he wrote a letter asking the judge to "break the deadlock to allow things to move forward quickly."

Twitter itself declined to comment on Elon Musk's request.

Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, chief judge at the Delaware Chancellery, last week ordered the October trial, which promises to be one of Wall Street's biggest legal battles in years. However, he left it up to the parties to draw up an exact schedule.

Musk, who is the chief executive of electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc, has requested a court hearing in February, which he says gives him the time he needs for a thorough investigation into fake Twitter accounts. He said the company misinterpreted his user number and therefore violated the merger agreement, allowing him to cancel the acquisition.

In contrast, Twitter, which has called for the trial to be held in September, said the fake account issue was a nuisance and the terms of the deal required Musk to keep paying.

Musk's letter also asks the judge to order Twitter to immediately produce so-called "core documents," which require Twitter to produce all raw data by August 1 and require the company to produce documents within 18 days of the request.

Musk has accused Twitter of refusing to immediately provide documents such as manuals and policies regarding daily active user counts and artificial intelligence and "all items in the data space."