Elon Musk is suing "Twitter" again, accusing it of "delaying" in the 44 billion deal
Billionaire Elon Musk accused Twitter of being reluctant to respond to his requests to disclose data, and Twitter accused him of seeking to obtain a large amount of data unrelated to the main issue in their dispute.
On Friday, Musk filed a counter-lawsuit against Twitter, escalating his legal battle against the social media company over his attempt to stop the $44 billion purchase.
The Tesla CEO and SpaceX CEO said he withdrew from the deal on July 8 and blamed Twitter for breaching the merger agreement by misrepresenting the number of fake accounts on its platform.
A judge in the US state of Delaware had said that the trial would begin on October 17 and last for five days to consider Twitter's attempt to keep Elon Musk on his deal.
Twitter filed a lawsuit days later, calling the claims of the fake accounts a distraction and saying that Musk was bound by the merger contract to close the deal at $54.20 per share.
The company's shares rose 1.4 percent in morning trading on Friday to $41.45.
Delaware District Court Judge Kathleen McCormick swiftly referred the case to trial last week, saying she wanted to limit potential damage to Twitter caused by the ambiguity over the deal.
Twitter has blamed the court battle for plunging revenue and causing chaos within the company.
The two sides have basically agreed to hold a trial on Oct. 17, but differ on the limits of what is disclosed or access to internal documents and other evidence.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news