Twitter countersuit between Musk and Twitter could be released this week
The Reuters -- Twitter Inc and Elon Musk, who are suing each other over the world's richest person's effort to exit their $44 billion merger, can't agree on how much to tell the public about their dispute.
The presiding judge, Kathleen McCormick of Delaware Chancery Court, ruled on Wednesday that Musk's countersuit will be made public by the afternoon of August 5, two days later than Musk wanted.
A person familiar with the case, but not authorized to discuss the case, said that Musk's countersuit could be released as soon as Thursday.
McCormick ruled after San Francisco-based Twitter accused Musk of trying to release his 163-page countersuit on Wednesday without giving it a chance to redact or black out, confidential information about the company.
Hours later, Musk's lawyers shot back, accusing Twitter of trying to bury the side of the story it does not want to publicly disclose and undermine the public's First Amendment right to know what both sides are arguing about.
On July 29, Twitter received a copy of the countersuit, and said court rules allowed it five business days to work on redactions. Musk said three business days were enough.
The dispute highlights the acrimony between Twitter and Musk, who is also chief executive of Tesla Inc.
Musk agreed to buy Twitter on April 25, but he wanted to back out on July 8 without paying a $1 billion breakup fee, citing Twitter's failure to provide details about the prevalence of bot and spam accounts.
Four days later, Twitter sued him, accusing him of sabotaging the merger because it no longer served his interests, and demanding he complete the merger.
An Oct. 17 trial is scheduled. This week, Twitter has issued dozens of subpoenas to banks, investors and law firms that backed Musk's bid, while Musk issued subpoenas to Twitter's advisers at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.
Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, saying he believed it could be a global platform for free speech.
The shares of Twitter went up 2 cents at $41.00 on Wednesday.