Twitter says it wants trial against Musk to proceed
Twitter is asking a Delaware court to proceed with an upcoming trial against Elon Musk, saying the billionaire refuses to accept the “contractual obligations” of his April agreement to buy the social media company for $44 billion.
Twitter attorneys sent a letter Thursday to the Delaware Chancery Court’s head judge, not long after Musk’s legal team asked her to call off the trial while he works on a renewed bid to buy the company.
Twitter disputed Musk’s claim that Twitter is refusing to accept the new bid, which Musk told the company about earlier this week after trying to terminate the deal over the summer.
Twitter has been seeking a court order to force the completion of the merger and said it intends to close the deal at the agreed-upon price, but described Musk’s move to delay the trial as “an invitation to further mischief and delay.”
Twitter said earlier this week that it intends to close the deal at the agreed-upon price, but the two sides are still booked for an Oct. 17 trial in Delaware over Musk’s earlier attempts to terminate the deal. On Wednesday, the judge presiding over the case said she will continue to press on toward the trial because, at the time, neither side had formally moved to stop it.
Musk’s attorneys said the trial should be adjourned to leave more time for Musk to secure the financing.
“Twitter will not take yes for an answer,” said the court filing signed by Musk attorney Edward Micheletti. “Astonishingly, they have insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly putting the deal at risk and gambling with their stockholders’ interests.”
Since Twitter sued Musk to force him to complete the purchase after he tried to back out four months ago, it is unlikely the San Francisco-based company — whose shareholders have voted to approve the deal — will walk away from the agreement.
Rather, it’s likely Twitter is seeking assurances from Musk’s side that this time he’s serious and won’t walk away again.
Eric Talley, a Columbia University law professor, tweeted Thursday that Twitter “is absolutely right not to take ‘yes’ for an answer, and everyone knows why. (They tried that in April and it didn’t go so well).” He added that Twitter would, however, take a “certified bank transfer” from Musk.
Musk attorneys argue that Twitter is disagreeing with the trial delay “based on the theoretical possibility” of Musk not coming up with the financing, which they call “baseless speculation.”
They said Musk’s financial backers “have indicated that they are prepared to honor their commitments” and are working to close the deal by Oct. 28, roughly a week after the trial was set to conclude.
Twitter’s shares fell $1.91, or 3.7%, to close at $49.39 on Thursday. It was the stock's second day of declines following a surge of more than 22% on Tuesday after Musk made his renewed offer to buy the company.