It is a blow to the world's richest man, who had asked for the court to be delayed until the new year.
Elon Musk backed out of the initial offer he made in early July of $44 billion to buy Twitter, forcing the company to file a lawsuit against him. Twitter hopes to be vindicated by the court's decision, which will order Mr Musk to complete the acquisition at the agreed initial price of $54.20 per share.
The billionaire accused Twitter of withholding information about bots and fake accounts on its platform. Eon Musk's legal team requested that the trial be held early next year due to the complexity of the case however Twitter requested that it be held in September. Finally on Tuesday, 20 July 2022, a judge in the state of Delaware agreed with the company saying that delaying the trial would create 'a cloud of uncertainty'. "The delay threatens irreparable harm," said Chancellor, Kathaleen St Jude McCormick. "The longer the delay, the greater the risk," she added. In the lawsuit, Twitter accuses Elon Musk with a "long list" of violations in anticipation of the potential takeover. At Tuesday's hearing, Twitter's chief legal counsel William Savitt said that the continued uncertainty over the outcome or otherwise of the acquisition "hurts Twitter on a daily basis."
One theory is that Elon Musk still wants to acquire Twitter, but wants to significantly reduce the cost of the acquisition. Elon Musk's legal team has requested that the trial be held next year so that they have the time to look for data on spam accounts, on bots, etc. But for many it was little more than a strategy to delay developments. Elon Musk's legal representatives reiterated at Tuesday's hearing their client's claim that there may be many more fake accounts and bots on Twitter than the company claims. And that's an extremely damaging accusation for the popular social network even if Mr. Musk was indeed interested in buying it at a lower price. His own company would be hurt.
In terms of Twitter's reputation, Elon Musk's statements and the collapse of the acquisition seem to have taken a significant toll on the company. Its revenue is almost entirely based on advertising. The fewer real people are on the platform, the less money it can make, as the bots don't have... bank accounts and wallets. This is exactly why Twitter wants to end this story as soon as possible. The best-case scenario is that the court orders Elon Musk to buy Twitter at the initial offer price, at $54.20 per share. In that case, however, Elon Musk would be faced with the odd prospect of being asked to buy a company he no longer wishes to own. It is more likely, however, that the court will force Elon Musk to pay some significant amount of money to Twitter and that the two will go their separate ways.
