On Friday, Elon Musk filed a motion challenging Twitter Inc’s bid to expedite a trial over his plan to terminate his $44 billion deal for the social media company.
In filings filed with the Delaware Chancery Court, Musk’s lawyers stated that Twitter’s “unjustifiable request” to expedite the merger case to trial in two months should be denied.
It is the latest development in what is expected to be a huge legal battle between Twitter and Musk. The San Francisco-based startup attempts to end months of uncertainty for its business as Musk attempts to back out of the arrangement over Twitter’s “spam bot” problem.
Twitter sued Musk on Tuesday for breaching the terms of the deal to buy the social media platform, seeking a Delaware court to require Musk to complete the merger at the agreed-upon price of $54.20 per share.
Because the merger agreement with Musk expires on October 25, the firm requested that the trial begins in September.
“Twitter’s unexpected call for warp speed after two months of dragging its feet and obfuscation is its latest move to conceal the facts about spam accounts long enough to railroad defendants into closure,” Musk said in his submission.
Musk’s lawyers said that the battle over fraudulent and spam accounts is critical to Twitter’s worth and requires much research and expertise. They claimed that discovery would take a long time and asked for a trial date on or after February 13.
Bank loan funding committed for Musk’s acquisition expires in April 2023. That means the transaction could fall through if the trial begins in February and is not completed by April. Twitter has refused to comment on Musk.
