Musk wants Twitter trial pushed to 2023 so he has time to analyze spam data

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Elon Musk urged the Delaware Court of Chancery to reject Twitter's motion for an expedited trial, saying he needs extensive time to analyze Twitter's spam-account data. While Twitter's motion sought a four-day trial to be completed in September 2022, Musk's court filing on Friday said the trial should begin on or after February 13, 2023.

"Twitter has engaged in tactical delay for two months by resisting Defendants' information requests... Twitter's sudden request for warp speed after two months of foot-dragging and obfuscation is its latest tactic to shroud the truth about spam accounts long enough to railroad Defendants into closing," Musk's motion said. Musk's legal team argued that the "core dispute over false and spam accounts is fundamental to Twitter's value," and that resolving "these issues will require complex, technical discovery—including the forensic review and analysis of large swaths of data."

Twitter sued Musk on July 12, demanding that he complete the $44 billion purchase he agreed to in April. Twitter's motion for a September 2022 trial cited the contract's "presumptive drop-dead date of October 24, 2022 for completion of the merger."