For those of you who have never watched a show about the U.S. legal system like L.A. Law (since when did Laurie Partridge become an attorney?), or have never ever been sued, a deposition is the sworn testimony of a witness held out of the courtroom. There usually is no judge, but the witness is sworn in and must answer questions truthfully under penalty of perjury.
Elon Musk faces a deposition this week from Twitter attorneys
This week, the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, will face a deposition as the defendant in Twitter’s lawsuit that accuses Musk of backing out of his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter at $54.20 a share. Of course, the multi-billionaire, co-founder, and CEO of Tesla feels that he was well within his rights to break off the deal because Twitter could not prove to Musk that fake accounts make up under 5% of the total number of Twitter accounts.
Twitter and Musk will face each other in court for five days starting on October 17th
Musk’s deposition is just one of several scheduled to take place before a five-day trial starts on October 17th in Wilmington, Delaware. He has a reputation for being combative with opposing attorneys during questioning. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal is one of the Twitter executives who will be deposed. His deposition was also supposed to take place on Monday and was also delayed. Putting off such high-profile depositions on the same day could be a sign that a settlement between the two parties has been reached, although sometimes delayed depositions are just delayed depositions.
Disney’s due diligence in 2016 for a potential purchase of Twitter matches what Musk’s team has discovered
Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor says about Musk that “His claims are factually inaccurate, legally insufficient and commercially irrelevant.” In its court filings Twitter said, “Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests.”
Backing up Elon’s claims about a large number of bogus Twitter accounts is former Disney CEO Bob Iger. Earlier this month, Iger revealed that Disney was looking into purchasing Twitter in 2016. But Iger said that Disney’s analysis led it to back off making a bid for Twitter; the former CEO of the Burbank based entertainment behemoth said that Disney’s due diligence helped it discover that a “substantial” number of Twitter accounts were fake.
