New Delhi: Elon Musk on Friday filed a motion opposing Twitter Inc’s request to fast-track a trial on its plan to terminate a $44 billion deal for the social media firm.
Musk’s lawyers said in papers filed in Delaware Chancery Court that Twitter’s “unreasonable request” to move the merger case to trial in two months should be dismissed. Read more: After outage, Instagram suffers another glitch, users unable to open a single post: Details inside
It is the latest move in what promises to be a major legal showdown between Twitter and Musk. The San Francisco-based company is trying to resolve months of uncertainty for its business as Musk tries to walk away from the deal for Twitter’s “spam bot” problem. Read more: LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman defends Elon Musk against Donald Trump
Twitter sued Musk on Tuesday for breaching a deal to buy the social media platform, with a Delaware court ordering the world’s richest man to complete the merger at an agreed price of $54.20 per share.
The company requested to begin testing in September as the merger agreement with Musk expired on October 25.
Musk’s filing said, “Twitter’s sudden request to warp motion after two months of foot-dragging and obfuscation, the latest tactic to shut down rail defendants for prolonging the truth about spam accounts.” Is.”
Musk’s lawyers argued that the controversy over false and spam accounts is fundamental to the value of Twitter and is extremely fact- and expert-intensive. He said it would require sufficient time for discovery and requested a date of testing on or after February 13 next year.
The debt financing package offered by banks to acquire Musk expires in April 2023. This means that if the trial began in February and does not end by April, the deal could collapse.
Twitter declined to comment on Musk’s latest motion.
Twitter shares were down about 1% in extended trading.