Elon Musk’s Twitter trial has been postponed by a Delaware court to give the Tesla CEO more time to complete his $44 billion purchase of the social media site.
The world’s richest person has until 5 p.m. ET on October 28 to complete the $44 billion purchase he renewed earlier this week for the San Francisco-based corporation.
The decision came only hours after Mr Musk’s attorneys claimed that Twitter had rejected the billionaire’s second $44 billion bid for the firm and sought a judge to halt their planned trial.
The Tesla CEO notified Twitter earlier this week that he would proceed with acquiring the firm, and Twitter stated that they, too, intended to close it.
Twitter has allegedly refused to accept the arrangement, which Mr Musk had been attempting to back out of for months, and their case against him is slated to be heard in a Delaware courtroom on October 17th.
The corporation may be “seeking assurances” that the world’s richest person will not back out from the contract again.
Twitter filed its court petition, claiming it was hesitant to accept the arrangement. Instead, it stated that the problem was “that Defendants still refuse to accept their contractual obligations.”
“For months, Defendants have pursued increasingly implausible claims and over and over sought to delay trial on the merits to enforce the Merger Agreement,” the Twitter lawyers stated
Musk’s attorneys urged the court on Thursday to postpone the trial so that he could acquire the cash needed to complete the transaction.
“Twitter will not take yes for an answer,” said the court filing signed by Mr Musk’s lawyer Edward Micheletti.
“Astonishingly, they have insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly putting the deal at risk and gambling with their stockholders’ interests.”
Reports said the South African-born entrepreneur attempted to negotiate a 30% reduction on the sale earlier.
Twitter turned down the idea, but conversations had focused on a 10% reduction that would have required Mr Musk to pay $39.6 billion.
Mr Musk agreed to acquire the firm in April for $54.20 per share, but by July had changed his mind, citing spam concerns.
Twitter then sued him to make the purchase go through.
Mr Musk pledged to pay the entire sum in a letter to Twitter on Monday, but only if the required cash was secured.
If he can’t get that from banks, he’ll have to pay the firm a reputed $1 billion break-up fee.
“The intention of the company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share,” Twitter said in a statement after receiving the letter.
Mr Musk and Twitter have been in discussions to finalize the purchase since then, but a judge in their lawsuit has stated that neither party has requested that the case be postponed, and it is still scheduled to go through.