Elon Musk has filed a motion opposing Twitter’s request to speed up a trial for his plan to terminate his $ 44 billion deal for the social media company.
Musk’s lawyers, in documents filed Friday in Delaware Chancery court, said Twitter’s “unwarranted request” to rush the merger case to court in two months should be rejected.
It’s the latest move in what promises to be a big 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 pull away from the deal for what he says is the problem of Twitter’s “spam bot.”
Twitter on Tuesday sued Musk for violating the deal to buy the social media platform, asking a Delaware court to order the world’s richest person to complete the merger at the agreed price of $ 54.20 per share.
The company requested that the trial begin in September because the merger agreement with Musk ends on October 25, 2022.
“Twitter’s sudden request for warp speed after two months of dragging and obfuscation is its latest tactic to hide the truth about spam accounts long enough to make defendants close,” Musk said. .
Musk’s lawyers argued that the dispute over fake and spam accounts was critical to the value of Twitter and was extremely intense in facts and experts. They said it would require substantial time for the discovery and asked for a trial date starting February 13 next year.
The debt financing package pledged by the banks for the acquisition of Musk expires in April 2023. This means that if the trial begins in February and does not end in April, the deal could collapse. .
Twitter declined to comment on Musk’s latest motion.
Twitter shares fell about 1% in expanded trading.
On Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) asked Musk to file any material intended to properly influence shareholders in their attempt to buy Twitter. The SEC’s request comes after a problem was pointed out in another filing.