With the trial set for October, wherein Musk will search to exit his $44 billion Twitter takeover bid, on the grounds that Twitter has lied concerning the presence of bots and spam on its app, Musk and Twitter are actually within the evidence-gathering stage, as they give the impression of being to formulate their respective circumstances within the course of.

This week, Musk and Co. had what gave the impression to be a win, with former Twitter Safety chief Peter ‘Mudge’ Zatko leveling a variety of accusations in opposition to the corporate, together with the suggestion that Twitter has certainly intentionally lied concerning the presence of bots and spam within the app.

Musk himself appeared fairly proud of Zatko’s revelations – although whether or not they’ll truly make any distinction, in relation to Musk’s authorized case, is up for debate.

Although it appears unlikely, with Twitter noting that the unique phrases of the deal embody the availability that its bot/spam numbers are estimates, not stone-clad information factors, which Musk agreed to when he signed the unique doc.

That implies that Musk and his crew will in all probability nonetheless want to seek out one other means out – and this week, Musk’s crew had one other minor win, with the choose within the case ruling that Twitter has to supply extra perception into the way it assesses its bot/spam counts.

Musk and Co. requested for a variety of knowledge factors on the accounts that Twitter has assessed up to now, and the choose dominated that Twitter does have to supply some additional information.

However there was additionally this:    

“Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware’s Courtroom of Chancery stated a lot of Musk’s information calls for have been “absurdly broad,” amounting to trillions of knowledge factors that “nobody of their proper thoughts has ever tried to undertake such an effort.”

All through the exploratory course of, McCormick has appeared largely unsympathetic to Musk’s place, as Twitter has introduced its authorized case. After viewing Twitter’s unique case notes, McCormick dominated that the case trial can be expedited to five days in October, which is way shorter and sooner than Musk’s crew had pushed for.

That might mirror the view that Twitter is on steadier floor, in a authorized sense (although Twitter had pushed for a September trial date), with the complexities that Musk and Co. have introduced failing to shift the needle, at the least at this stage of the method.

However now, Musk will get extra information, whereas Musk can be looking for to take a seat down with Zatko to debate his revelations, within the hope that this too will assist to solidify his case.

It doesn’t seem to be it’ll add a heap of authorized weight to Musk’s claims – however then once more, Zatko’s testimony does solid extra doubt over Twitter’s inside processes, whereas the pending fines in consequence, which may very well be within the billions, may be grounds for dismissal of the takeover settlement, based mostly on  Materials Opposed Impact (i.e. an unexpected change within the state of affairs which alters the make-up of the unique settlement).

However in all probability not. We’ll simply have to attend and see.

On one other entrance, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey woke up from hibernation this week to share a few of his standard, faux-philosophical ideas on how issues are going for the app.

In response to a tweeted query about whether or not Twitter has turned out the way in which that he wished, Dorsey stated that his greatest remorse is that Twitter turned an organization within the first place.

Dorsey – who’s made hundreds of thousands from promoting Twitter inventory – has a brand new, revisionist perspective: that Twitter ought to truly be a protocol as a substitute, which might function extra like electronic mail, and wouldn’t be owned by an organization or state.

Which is silly, and is senseless for varied causes – whereas it’s additionally value noting that Dorsey has beforehand stated that his ‘greatest remorse’ is:

• The ‘Like’ button
• Emphasizing follower counts
• The demise of Vine
• The centralization of the web

So, mainly, Jack Dorsey has plenty of regrets, which displays each his fickle nature and his philosophical flexibility, which can change once more subsequent time you ask him.

In different phrases, don’t ask Jack. Happening remarks from those that labored on the firm throughout his tenure, he wasn’t round a lot both means.

So, issues are nonetheless fairly tense, nonetheless fairly chaotic within the Twitter/Musk stakes, with the most recent accusations in all probability not serving to Musk’s case, however positively not serving to Twitter itself in any means both.

Which is the subsequent huge query – what occurs to Twitter after the trial in October?

If Musk by some means does win, and wriggles out of his takeover bid, Twitter can be left with an enormous mess to wash up, and never a lot cash with which to do it, whereas if Musk loses, he’ll be taking up an organization that he publicly fought tooth and nail to get away from, which might be not splendid state of affairs for the employees which are left behind.

After which, once more, will come the potential fines based mostly on Zatko’s testimony, whereas Twitter’s share value, you’ll anticipate, may even be in free fall – as a result of clearly, even Elon noticed one thing within the app’s documentation that made his flip on the app.

Mainly, in three months time, we’re going to be Twitter loads in a different way. And it in all probability gained’t be for the higher.

The five-day Elon vs Twitter trial is scheduled for October seventeenth