Signal messages are now the topic of a fight between Elon Musk and Twitter
According to Twitter's lawyers, Tesla CEO Elon Musk withheld messages he should have handed over.
Elon Musk's private messages could again land him in hot
water in his legal fight with Twitter. A trial will be held in October to
determine the deal's fate as lawyers for both sides engaged in yet another
battle in Delaware's Court of Chancery.
Among the issues raised during the more than three-hour
hearing was Musk's use of the encrypted messaging app Signal. An exchange
between Musk and Jared Birchall, Musk's family office head, is cited as
evidence Musk withheld messages sent through the app.
The communication made mention of Morgan Stanley, Marc
Andreesen, and "a dialogue concerning EU regulatory clearance" of
Musk's agreement with Twitter, according to Twitter attorneys. After Musk and
Birchall claimed they did not communicate about the acquisition via Signal,
Twitter's attorneys said they had a screenshot of the conversation. The
snapshot demonstrated that the post was scheduled for automated deletion.
In addition, Twitter lawyers pointed to "a missing text
message" between Musk and Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, who was to invest
alongside Musk. Musk and Ellison were texting in the morning before Musk tweeted that the Twitter deal was "temporarily suspended." It's
unclear what the texts mean, but Twitter lawyers noted that Musk wrote to
Ellison saying "interesting times" before arranging a phone call with
him.
Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, the judge handling the case, has
been asked to sanction Musk for his side's handling of his posts. The attorneys
representing Twitter stated during the hearing that they believe a severe
penalty is due.
Musk's team tried to downplay the Tesla CEO's use of Signal.
"There's actually no evidence that we destroyed any evidence," one of
Musk's attorneys replied. "Signal, you know, looks like it's a nefarious
device," she said. "In fact, Twitter executives have testified that a
number of them are actually using Signal messaging."
Musk's attorneys cited the existence of Signal messages
between Jack Dorsey and Chairman of the Board Bret Taylor, and noted that
current CEO Parag Agrawal also delivered Signal messages. Signal is not an
unusual technique, she added, adding that the usage of this platform was
widespread in Silicon Valley.
Notably, Twitter attorneys have utilised Musk's private
chats collected via the legal discovery process in previous hearings in an
effort to uphold the terms of the original agreement with Musk. Twitter lawyers
previously called off a text message between Musk and one of his Morgan Stanley
bankers in which he cited concerns about "World War III" as a reason
to slow his negotiations with Twitter.
In the upcoming days, McCormick is anticipated to make a
decision on Twitter's demand to penalise Musk. On October 17, a five-day trial
that will decide the destiny of the agreement will begin.
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