A date has been set for the trial between Twitter and Elon Musk.

 A date has been set for the trial between Twitter and Elon Musk.

 A Delaware judge has decided that the trial for Twitter's case against Elon Musk over his decision to renege on their $44 billion acquisition agreement will begin on October 17 and last for five days.

The trial dates were ordered by the case's judge, Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, late on Thursday. The two sides continued to argue on the specific start date after McCormick had decided in Twitter's favor that the proceedings might be accelerated and take place in October. Twitter pushed for it to start on October 10.

 

The initial request made by Musk's legal team was for the trial to start in 2023. The legal team for Twitter claimed that the case needed to move along quickly in order to minimize the "damage" to the company's operations and make sure the purchase can be closed by October 24, the "drop dead" date by which the two parties had previously agreed to consummate the deal.

The billionaire Tesla CEO was sued by Twitter earlier this month in the Delaware Court of Chancery in an effort to get him to stick to his agreement to purchase the social media giant after Musk declared his intention to break it.

Previously, Musk's attorney claimed that Twitter was "in substantial breach of various articles" of the agreement and that the business had withheld information Musk needed to assess the volume of spam and bot accounts on the platform. Twitter's legal team afterwards referred to Musk's attempted termination as "invalid and unjust," and they asserted in the lawsuit that Musk is attempting to back out of a pact because he now regrets his decision due to the use of bots.

While this is going on, Twitter is still working on the agreement. Twitter announced in a letter to shareholders on Tuesday that a virtual special meeting would be held on September 13 to vote on the merger agreement.