Twitter vs. Musk Still On? Delaware Court Sends Letter Saying Parties Haven’t Filed Anything So Will ‘Press On Toward Our Trial’

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Twitter, Inc. v. Elon R. Musk, one of the most famous cases ever to wander into the great state of Delaware, may get its day in court after all. Despite Tuesday’s bombshell news that Elon Musk was willing to buy the social media giant for his original offer price, neither Musk nor Twitter have seen fit to take any legal steps to stop the trial scheduled to begin on Oct. 17.

Musk originally offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, or $54.20 per share, but then attempted to back out of the deal, blaming undisclosed bots and other issues, and the whole thing ended up in the Delaware Chancery Court after Twitter filed suit under the terms of the acquisition agreement. Musk’s prospects for success had been looking increasingly grim according to many legal observers, but he had seemed stubbornly insistent on holding his ground.

Then, one day after he sparked an international diplomatic kerfuffle with his tweets about the war in Ukraine — even getting schooled by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself — Musk inexplicably sent a letter to Twitter Tuesday saying he was now willing to honor the original deal.

But there’s still the matter of actually gathering up $44 billion in funding from outside investors and spare change from the floorboard of his Tesla, to be able to fulfill his legal obligations under the acquisition agreement.

And Musk is scheduled to sit for a deposition tomorrow, as Quartz internet reporter Scott Nover pointed out, “unless something drastic happens before then.”

Elon Musk will be deposed in the Twitter case tomorrow unless something drastic happens before then. https://t.co/hOSz1gOCfW

— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) October 5, 2022

With all that in mind, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick with the Delaware Chancery Court sent the parties a ruling in a letter Wednesday that made clear the game was still on until somebody actually did something to legally hit the brakes.

“Dear Counsel,” she wrote. “The parties have not filed a stipulation to stay this action, nor has any party moved for a stay. I, therefore, continue to press on toward our trial set to begin on October 17, 2022.”

The remainder of the 12-page document dealt with several ongoing discovery disputes between the parties, rejecting a request from Twitter to impose sanctions against Musk for some minor and already-resolved or soon-to-be-resolved deficiencies, ordering additional production of evidence from Musk regarding Signal messages he reportedly sent, and reserving ruling on messages that were deleted during a time it was “unclear” Musk was under a duty to preserve evidence.

Read the letter from Chancellor McCormick below:

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