Elon Musk Wants To Stop October 17 Trial Date To Close Twitter Deal On Original Terms

Three days after Elon Musk said he wanted to return to his original agreement to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, Tesla’s CEO is asking the social media company to end all lawsuits to close the deal.

In a filing with the Delaware’s Court of Chancery on Thursday, Musk’s side said Twitter should drop the court date to October 17 so that the necessary funding can be raised to complete the acquisition by October 28.

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“Twitter will not accept yes for an answer,” the submission says. “Amazingly, they have insisted on going ahead with this lawsuit, recklessly risking the deal and gambling with the interests of their shareholders.”

Musk’s attorneys argue that by Twitter’s failure to agree to set the lawsuit aside, the upcoming lawsuit would “impede the deal’s progress”.

Instead of allowing the parties to focus their attention on securing the debt financing needed to complete the transaction and preparing for a transfer of the business, the parties will instead remain distracted by discovery and an unnecessary trial,” the lawyers wrote.

Twitter sued Musk in July for trying to force the world’s richest person to stick to his purchase agreement, which was signed in April. Musk seemed poised to take the matter to court as legions of his text messages were released in preliminary files.

While Twitter shareholders, on the recommendation of the company, agreed to Musk’s purchase price in September, Twitter may now be reluctant to walk away from its lawsuit with no assurance that all the funding is available to close the deal.

Musk’s lawyers said “by far the most likely possibility is that the debt will be financed, in which case the deal will close on or about October 28,” though they haven’t worked out exactly how the debt would be financed. The attorneys added that “the counsel for the debt financing parties has advised that each of their clients is willing to perform its obligations under the Bank Debt Commitment Letter on the terms and subject to the fulfillment of the conditions set forth therein.” .”

Morgan Stanley and Bank of America are among the banks that originally agreed to provide $12.5 billion in debt for Musk. Since then, markets have collapsed, especially for risky technical assets.

Twitter acknowledged earlier this week that it had received the letter from Musk and his lawyers expressing a desire to buy Twitter at the originally agreed price. Twitter said in response to the letter, “It is the company’s intention to close the transaction at $54.20 per share.”

However, Twitter did not say whether it would end the lawsuit against Musk.