Elon Musk and Twitter ‘still negotiating’ over depositions as trial nears: sources

Elon Musk and Twitter are nonetheless wrangling over key deposition dates lower than three weeks earlier than they go to court docket in Delaware over their contentious $44 billion buyout deal, The Publish has discovered. 

A Tuesday court docket submitting indicated Musk can be deposed by Twitter’s attorneys 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 court docket, based on authorized specialists.

Regardless of the urgency, two sources accustomed to the matter mentioned the timing for Musk’s deposition stays up within the air. The late-hour negotiations come as Wall Road watches intently for any signal of a possible settlement forward of the trial, which is slated to kick off Oct. 17.

“The Elon date for October continues to be a proposal,” one of many sources mentioned. “Not confirmed but. Sides nonetheless negotiating when and the place will probably be.” 

Likewise, it’s unclear when Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal will likely be deposed after he abruptly withdrew from a scheduled deposition on Monday as a consequence of unspecified private causes, the sources mentioned. Musk’s staff has been insistent about interviewing Agrawal in particular person, sources mentioned.

Beforehand, court docket 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 potential that Twitter is not going to need Agrawal to testify considerably earlier than Musk.

Parag Agrawal
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal abruptly pulled out of a scheduled deposition on Monday.
Getty Pictures

Agrawal earlier deliberate to push the deposition to someday later this week, a supply accustomed to the matter mentioned, however a particular date has nonetheless not been set. The 2 sides mentioned Agrawal’s deposition privately with Delaware Courtroom of Chancery Decide Kathaleen McCormick on Tuesday, one of many sources mentioned. 

Twitter and Musk declined to remark.

The most recent 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 Publish reported that no settlement was imminent, Twitter shares tanked. 

A hedge fund analyst intently following the case identified that Musk and Twitter are at the moment scheduled to trade lists of witnesses on Oct. 5 — at some point earlier than Musk’s deposition would start beneath the not too long ago proposed dates. 

“Doing a deposition after [exchanging witness lists] is tremendous uncommon,” the analyst mentioned. “That mentioned, it might simply be scheduling points nonetheless. One principle is it’s settlement talks, however possibly Elon and the attorneys are simply unavailable sooner.” 

One of many sources accustomed to 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 achieved,” the supply mentioned. 

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