Elon Musk scheduled to testify in Twitter case next week

World's richest man is seeking to terminate $44bn deal to acquire the social media platform

Elon Musk claims Twitter had not levelled with him about the number of spam and bot accounts on its platform. Reuters

Elon Musk is scheduled to answer questions on September 26 and 27 from Twitter’s lawyers on his failed $44 billion purchase of the company, a court filing showed.

The deposition, which will take place behind closed doors at a law office in Wilmington, Delaware, may be extended into a third day if needed.

Mr Musk’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, will have to sit for his own deposition on September 25, a separate filing showed.

Mr Spiro may not have much to say in the pretrial questioning, said Larry Hamermesh, a University of Pennsylvania law professor who specialises in corporate disputes.

“It’s very odd to have the lead litigator have to give a deposition in these [merger and acquisition] cases,” Mr Hamermesh said in an interview on Tuesday.

“Legal privilege excludes him from talking about any aspect of the case, so it’s puzzling what topics they think they can explore with him.”

Mr Musk backed away from his planned purchase of Twitter earlier this year, claiming the company had not levelled with him about the number of spam and bot accounts among its more than 230 million users.

Twitter says the concerns are a pretext to get out of a deal over which the world’s richest person began to experience buyer’s remorse, and it filed a suit against him in Delaware Chancery Court.

The trial is scheduled to begin on October 17 and last five days. Dozens of people as well as banks and companies have been subpoenaed in the case.