After Elon Musk’s surprising new commitment to buy Twitter, the legal proceedings on the acquisition have been temporarily suspended. Responsible judge Kathleen McCormick ruled on Thursday (local time). This means that the trial scheduled for October 17 is out of the question for now.
McCormick, however, has made clear conditions for the pause of the proceedings: if Musk has not completed the acquisition of about 44 billion dollars (45 billion euros) of the short messaging service by October 28, the parties involved must prepare for a new judgment date in November.
Musk surprisingly confirmed his original offer for Twitter on Tuesday, paving the way for a spectacular turnaround in the tough takeover dispute. The Tesla boss had actually declared the April purchase agreement invalid in July because Twitter allegedly provided false information about the number of fake accounts on its platform. However, the company insisted on compliance with the purchase agreement and went to court. A five-day trial in Delaware was actually scheduled for mid-October.
The dispute between Musk and Twitter continues
Despite Musk’s rethinking, the fronts continued to harden. The entrepreneur and Twitter are still at odds over important details that need to be worked out to finalize the deal. Instead of a rapprochement, there have recently been new attacks, so there is still uncertainty about the conclusion of the operation.
Musk’s lawyers moved on Thursday to stop the case and dismiss the case. Twitter immediately filed a counter motion in which the company clearly denied this. The judge then set a deadline for the parties to settle the differences.
Twitter: Musk may still give up
According to Twitter, Musk has so far kept a backdoor open to exiting the deal by making the acquisition dependent on funding. The company is suspicious and wants to secure the deal before the legal dispute is fully resolved.
Meanwhile, Musk has returned to a conflictual path: “Twitter does not take yes for an answer,” they say sea Ars Technique in the judicial instance. “Surprisingly, they insist on moving forward with the process.” Twitter is therefore jeopardizing the deal and jeopardizing the interests of its shareholders.
No relationship of trust, but a fixed deadline
In the counter-motion, the online platform’s lawyers made it clear that they no longer trust Musk after months of maneuvering to cancel the purchase. The obstacle is not that Twitter doesn’t take “yes” for an answer, but that Musk still refuses to honor his contractual purchasing commitments. Musk wants to put in place a plan that allows him, on the basis of some reservations, to delay the conclusion of the deal at will and to obtain legal certainty in case of default.
Now, Elon Musk and Twitter have until 5pm local time on October 28, 2022 to complete the acquisition results from the procedural documents. Otherwise, the parties to the dispute are required to inform the court on the evening of that day in order to obtain a new date for the continuation of the proceedings in November.
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