Wilmington, Delaware - A court date has been set for the latest chapter in Elon Musk's never-ending Twitter buyout saga. And with $44 billion and company ownership on the line, the stakes are as high as ever.

According to TechCrunch, the first step of court proceedings kicked off Tuesday, as Judge Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery set the court date for October 2022.

This is far sooner than the February 2023 date Musk's legal team wanted, and the hearings will take five days, in a compromise that leaves everyone slightly unhappy.

The reason Twitter wanted an earlier, faster court date, is because the company is still reeling from the effects it claims Musk has unleashed.

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"Millions of Twitter shares trade daily under a cloud of Musk-created doubt. No public company of this size has ever had to bear these uncertainties," Twitter wrote in a filing seen by TechCrunch.

Meanwhile, Musk's legal team contends that they need as much time as possible to dig into the data from Twitter that came from the billionaire's demand for detailed numbers on the amount of spam accounts on the social media platform.

Twitter already got a minor victory from Judge McCormick's ruling, and may be on stable ground with its claims that Musk did not act in good faith after announcing the buyout offer.

Jason Goldman, a former Twitter board of directors and founding team member, told The New York Times: "[Musk's] engagement with Twitter took a severe toll on the company. Employees, advertisers and the market at large cannot have conviction in a company whose path is unknowable and which will now go to court to complete a transaction with a bad-faith actor."

So far, Musk has:

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• Fired shots at Twitter’s leadership
• Talked trash about Twitter content rules
• Caused frustration and confusion amongst Twitter's employees
• Head-faked joining Twitter's board of directors
  

At the same time, Twitter shares have been absolutely shredded, diving over 30% from a high of nearly $50 down below $40 per share since Musk's Twitter escapades started in April.

Twitter using a lawsuit to strong-arm Musk into buying the company he has publicly denounced might seem like a bad idea, but the potential $44 billion buyout could still be worth it to the board of directors.