By Leah Montebello
Elon Musk’s legal team have called for the trial over the $44bn takeover of Twitter to be delayed, citing recent whistleblower claims about the company’s practices.
Twitter’s former head of security Peiter Zatko said in a complaint to US regulators in June that Twitter had falsely represented its data security plans.
In his complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), he accuses Twitter of deceiving shareholders and violating the agreement it made with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to uphold security standards.
Musk’s lawyers are using the whistleblower’s claims to suggest that Twitter had made a number of violations to its buyout agreement with the Tesla founder.
Speaking at a hearing in Delaware yesterday, and as reported by Reuters, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro said: “Doesn’t justice demand a few weeks to look into this?”
Meanwhile, Twitter said Zatko’s allegations were a “false narrative”. At the time, a Twitter spokesperson told CNN
Mr. Zatko’s allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders. Security and privacy have long been company-wide priorities at Twitter and we still have a lot of work ahead of us.
Twitter’s attorney William Savitt also: “Mr Musk is blaming Twitter for his failing to do customary due diligence”.
As reported by Bloomberg, Twitter noted that the bots issue, which has been a major point of contention for Musk, wasn’t a part of Zatko’s “portfolio” of work, stating that he oversaw computer-security issues instead.
Musk has suggested that as many as a third of Twitter’s users could be bots, misleading his team when the deal was first agreed earlier this year.
These factors are key driver for the world’s richest man’s countersuit against Twitter
The main ambition for the social media giant is to convince the Delaware court to force the billionaire to pay the $54.20-per-share deal he originally agreed to in April.
The trial date is currently set for October, which Musk’s lawyers have said is not “remotely achievable” because of unreasonable delays in information exchange.
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