A judge on Thursday delayed Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover trial, giving him three weeks to close his deal to buy the social media platform for $44 billion after months of his trying to get out of the deal.
The Tesla CEO had on Thursday asked Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, head of Delaware’s Court of Chancery, to halt an expedited trial scheduled for Oct. 17, arguing the need for the trial was moot in light of his renewed offer.
In a win for Musk, McCormick said the deal needs to be closed by Oct. 28 or the trial originally set for mid-October will happen in November.
After the judge’s ruling, Twitter indicated it wants to close the deal by Oct. 28 for $54.20 a share, which Musk first offered for each Twitter share.
Lawyers for Musk had earlier on Thursday told the court he had offered Twitter the original price of $54.20 per share if the company drops the legal action, but Twitter was dubious about his motives.
Twitter doesn’t seem to want to drop the legal action until the deal is closed. The social media company’s lawyers told the court that Musk refuses to accept his contractual obligations.
In court filings, they called Musk’s motion to stay the case “an invitation to further mischief and delay.” Musk is the defendant in the case.
“The obstacle to terminating this litigation is not, as Defendants say, that Twitter is unwilling to take yes for an answer,” Twitter’s lawyers wrote. “The obstacle is that Defendants still refuse to accept their contractual obligations.”
Twitter accuses Musk of pursuing “increasingly implausible claims” for months to avoid the trial to enforce the deal.
After spending the summer attempting to back out of the deal and accusing Twitter of refusing to hand over information about spam bot accounts, Musk told Twitter earlier this week he’s ready to buy the company once again.
