Elon Musk demands postponement of Twitter trial

Elon Musk's attorney argued to the judge on Tuesday that a trial on his attempt to end his $44 billion deal with Twitter should be postponed for a few weeks so that Musk can look into allegations of security on the social media site made by a whistleblower.

Alex Spiro, Musk's attorney, questioned why justice didn't require a few weeks to investigate this during a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware.

Whistleblower charges that were made public last month gave Musk, the richest man in the world, new support for his improbable attempt to terminate the agreement without paying a $1 billion termination fee, according to legal experts.

Peiter Zatko, a hacker known as "Mudge," who served as Twitter's former head of security, claimed in a regulatory complaint that the business misrepresented the strength of its data protection measures.

Twitter has called Zatko's claims "false narratives," and on Tuesday, the company's counsel charged that the billionaire was using the whistleblower claims to hide the fact that he allegedly rushed into buying the business without fully understanding the risks.

“Mr Musk is blaming Twitter for his failure to do customary due diligence,” said William Savitt, an attorney for Twitter. He urged the judge to prevent Musk from adding whistleblower claims to his lawsuit but said if he is allowed to do so, the five-day trial should begin on 17 October as scheduled.

Savitt read an early May message from Musk to a banker that turned up in the litigation in which the billionaire wrote: “It won’t make sense to buy Twitter if we’re heading into world war III.” Savitt said it was evidence that Musk is looking for any way out of the deal and his initial claims about bots and fake accounts were merely a pretext to end the deal.

Musk and Twitter are battling it out in court. The company is asking Delaware's Chancery Court Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick to order Musk to acquire the business at the $54.20 per share price he committed to in April.

Tuesday's trading session for Twitter shares closed with a small increase to $38.65 per share.

Tuesday's hearing was adjourned by McCormick without a decision date being announced.

Musk, who is also the CEO of the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, first countersued Twitter for deceiving him about the number of phoney or automated accounts the social media platform was home to, which he claimed permitted him to back out of the contract.

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