Elon Musk's Twitter deposition delayed at the last minute

Ahead of a trial that has been anything but smooth, Elon Musk's Twitter deposition has been rescheduled for October 6-7, less than two weeks before the official start of the trial, in which Twitter seeks to force the billionaire to complete his $44 billion bid to buy the social media company - which he is trying to exit.

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Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal also postponed his deposition on Monday.

Musk and Twitter are due to face off next month in a trial overseen by Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, who was not thrilled with Musk's antics ahead of the October showdown.

Documents were posted to Twitter earlier this month showing McCormick's not-so-supportive language when outlining Musk's demands, including his desire to delay the lawsuit.

Before the documents were made public, Twitter shareholders voted in favor of Elon Musk's bid to buy the social media company, a move that means an October lawsuit between Musk and Twitter will continue, although Musk still hopes the court will allow him to terminate the agreement.

The explosive shareholder announcement came just minutes after Twitter whistleblower and former corporate security officer Peiter Zatko testified before Congress.

Musk's legal team sent a letter to Twitter ahead of Zatko's testimony, claiming Zatko's accusations were grounds for terminating the proposed purchase.

Zatko, Twitter's former chief security officer, penned an 84-page complaint against the company in August, claiming Twitter misled regulators by not having a security plan strong against spam accounts and bots, also adding that the company was more concerned with overall user growth than weeding out fake accounts.

Musk claims that if true, Zatko's allegations would mean that Twitter violated part of its agreement with the billionaire, namely that Musk asked Twitter to provide an accurate report and a methodology to find precisely how many Twitter users were spam and bot accounts. Musk has also subpoenaed Zatko in his lawsuit against Twitter, joining the ranks of Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, whom Musk subpoenaed last month.

Dorsey is asked to hand over a number of different documents for the upcoming trial, including information about Twitter's internal measures, Musk's merger agreement, and spam and fake bot accounts on the platform.

It's unclear exactly what information Musk hopes to get from Dorsey, but it's guaranteed to be juicy.

Dorsey publicly supported Musk's decision to acquire Twitter in April through a series of tweets posted shortly after the public learned of Musk's $44 billion bid to buy the company .

"Elon is the singular solution I trust. I trust his mission to expand the light of consciousness," Dorsey wrote. "Elon's goal of creating a 'maximally trusted and broadly inclusive' platform is the right one."

Last week, a judge ordered Twitter to turn over documents from a former executive to Musk as the legal battle began to escalate.

Musk, who tried to walk away from his $44 billion bid to acquire the social media company, cited his reasoning for not closing the deal as Twitter's failure to provide him with accurate data on the number of accounts on the platform that are bots and spam. accounts.

Under Monday's new ruling, Twitter will now have to produce documents from Kayvon Beykpour, the company's former general manager of consumer products who was a key part and contributor to the spam report Musk received during of its first acquisition attempt. the company in April.

Earlier this month, Musk changed his tune again on his decision to walk away from his offer to buy Twitter, after a series of Tweets from the billionaire showed that under the right circumstances, the agreement could continue.

Musk responded to a Tweet that pointed out that Twitter allegedly used a "fake data set" to determine the number of accounts on the platform that are spam and bot accounts by saying "the deal should continue" so long because Twitter could provide Musk with the information he is looking for.

"If Twitter were simple...