A judge has delayed pending litigation between Twitter and Elon Musk CEO of Tesla After spending more time closing a $44 billion deal to buy the company, he struggled to exit the company.
Musk had asked to stay the upcoming trial in Delaware, where the Tesla billionaire is expected to perform poorly. Against Twitter’s claim forcing him to complete the merger agreement in April. Musk revived the takeover bid on Monday but he said he needed time to get the financing in order.
Chancellor Kathaleen St. Delaware Court of Chancery Chief Jude McCormick said Thursday that Musk and Twitter have until October. 28 to conclude a contract. The trial was originally scheduled for October. It will not happen on November 17, he said.
Twitter on Thursday asked McCormick to continue the lawsuit, saying the billionaire refused to accept the “contractual obligations” of an April deal to buy the social media company and take it private.
Twitter denied Musk’s claim that the San Francisco-based company refused to accept his updated offer. Musk said on Twitter earlier this week that he was open to buying the company again after he tried to back out of the deal over the summer, accusing it of refusing to disclose information about “spam bot” accounts on the service.
Twitter described Musk’s move to delay the lawsuit as an “invitation to further complications and delays” after its arguments to void the contract were without merit.
But after the judge’s ruling, Twitter reiterated its willingness to close the deal at the agreed-upon share price in April: “We look forward to closing the transaction by October 28 at $54.20,” referring to Musk’s original offer price. for every Twitter share.
Andrew Jennings, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, said Twitter wants to make sure the deal goes through and “will not let Musk get away with it again.”
Musk’s lawyers argued that Twitter disagreed with the trial delay “based on the theoretical possibility” that Musk would not come up with the funding, which they called “unfounded speculation.”
They said that Musk’s financial backers have “expressed their willingness to honor their commitments” and are looking to close the deal by October. 28.
“Twitter offered Mr. Musk billions below the transaction price,” Musk’s attorney Alex Spiro said in a statement Thursday, but Musk “refused because Twitter was trying to put certain self-serving terms into the deal.” I did not say what those terms were. He did not describe it beyond what he said.
Shares of Twitter traded down $1.91, or 3.7%, to $49.39 on Thursday. It was a second day of losses for the stock on Tuesday, after surging more than 22% after Musk made a renewed offer to buy the company.
