Twitter stock spikes after judge rejects Elon Musk's request to delay his Twitter trial
Musk and Twitter will square off in court on October 17.
Twitter's stock price spiked 4.2% Wednesday after a judge in Delaware rejected billionaire Elon Musk's request to delay a trial over his potential purchase of the company.
Musk had requested a delay at the end of August after a whistleblower at Twitter claimed the company made false claims about its security capabilities. Twitter is suing Musk to force him to follow through on his offer to purchase the company for $44 billion.
Lawyers for Musk and Twitter will open their arguments in the Delaware Court of Chancery on Oct. 17.
Musk has sought to back out of his original offer to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share, arguing the company misrepresented how many spam accounts were active on its platform. Twitter states that spam and bots make up less than five percent of its users.
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The billionaire has said he believes at least 20% of Twitter's users could be spam, fake accounts (Getty images | istock)
Musk is seeking to avoid a $1 billion fine for canceling his purchase.
Peiter Zatko, Twitter's former head of security, did not comment on the prevalence of bots on the platform but stated that the company had "extreme, egregious deficiencies" in its cybersecurity.
Peiter Zatko, who is also known as Mudge poses for a portrait on Monday August 22, 2022 in Washington, DC. He has worked for Google and Twitter. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images) ((Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
He claims that Twitter took little-to-no action to stop foreign governments that were trying to "infiltrate, control, exploit, surveil and/or censor the company’s platform, staff, and operations."
Musk filed a second cancelation notice for his purchase of Twitter following Zatko's claims.
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Zatko will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 13.