Elon Musk and Twitter are nonetheless wrangling over key deposition dates lower than three weeks earlier than they go to courtroom in Delaware over their contentious $44 billion buyout deal, The Submit has realized.
A Tuesday courtroom submitting indicated Musk can be deposed by Twitter’s legal professionals on Oct. 6 and seven — simply 10 days earlier than the trial kicks off. That might give attorneys for either side an virtually unprecedentedly quick window of time to arrange for courtroom, in keeping with authorized specialists.
Regardless of the urgency, two sources conversant in the matter stated the timing for Musk’s deposition stays up within the air. The late-hour negotiations come as Wall Road watches carefully for any signal of a possible settlement forward of the trial, which is slated to kick off Oct. 17.
“The Elon date for October remains to be a proposal,” one of many sources stated. “Not confirmed but. Sides nonetheless negotiating when and the place will probably be.”
Likewise, it’s unclear when Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal might be deposed after he abruptly withdrew from a scheduled deposition on Monday as a result of unspecified private causes, the sources stated. Musk’s crew has been insistent about interviewing Agrawal in particular person, sources stated.
Beforehand, courtroom filings had indicated that each Musk and Agrawal can be deposed on Monday of this week. Since Musk and Agrawal’s depositions had initially been penciled-in for a similar day, it’s attainable that Twitter is not going to need Agrawal to testify considerably earlier than Musk.
Agrawal earlier deliberate to push the deposition to someday later this week, a supply conversant in the matter stated, however a selected date has nonetheless not been set. The 2 sides mentioned Agrawal’s deposition privately with Delaware Court docket of Chancery Choose Kathaleen McCormick on Tuesday, one of many sources stated.
Twitter and Musk declined to remark.
The newest wrangling over deposition dates is feeding the rumor mill forward of the trial.
When information broke that neither can be deposed on Monday, a flurry of hypothesis a few potential settlement briefly despatched Twitter’s share value hovering. After The Submit reported that no settlement was imminent, Twitter shares tanked.
A hedge fund analyst carefully following the case identified that Musk and Twitter are presently scheduled to trade lists of witnesses on Oct. 5 — at some point earlier than Musk’s deposition would start underneath the just lately proposed dates.
“Doing a deposition after [exchanging witness lists] is tremendous uncommon,” the analyst stated. “That stated, it might simply be scheduling points nonetheless. One idea is it’s settlement talks, however perhaps Elon and the legal professionals are simply unavailable sooner.”
One of many sources conversant in the matter predicted that each Musk and Agrawal’s depositions are nonetheless going to occur.
“There’s nonetheless loads of time to get the depositions accomplished,” the supply stated.
