We were correct to assume that the Musk-Twitter drama had yet to reach its conclusion and that further dramatics were in store. Soon after Musk made it known that he will proceed with the acquisition on the original terms and acquire Twitter at $54.20 per share, the billionaire won a small victory ahead of his highly-anticipated trial against Twitter. The trial, which was slated to begin on October 17, has now been put on hold.
This comes as Judge Kathaleen McCormick granted the request made by Musk’s legal team, which asked for the removal of the October 17 trial from the Court’s calendar “based on changed circumstances that have effectively mooted this action.” For now, the trial has been put on hold until 5 PM on October 28, and if the acquisition of Twitter for $44 billion is not completed by then, then the trial may occur at a later date in November in the same court.
Musk is already fighting an uphill battle as the pre-trial stage has been set with dramatics after the reveal of text messages between the Tesla executive, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and others. Earlier this week, Musk abruptly changed his stance about not buying Twitter (something that he himself had proposed) and agreed to proceed with the acquisition on the terms the two sides had agreed upon in April. He was also scheduled to be deposed last week, something that was delayed, and his deposition on Friday was delayed yet again.
A letter from Musk’s legal team to the court of Chancery in Delaware informed that the “action” (aka trial) was moot since Musk had announced his intentions to follow through and there was no need for the trial to order Musk and his team to do so. The letter informed that they have agreed to perform their obligations under the merger agreement to acquire Twitter and “consummate the closing in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement.” They added that the debt financing parties were working cooperatively to fund the close, and the acquisition was expected to be completed by October 28.
Unsurprisingly, the letter did not spare Twitter, saying that the company refused to take yes for an answer and that it “insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly putting the deal at risk and gambling with stockholders’ interests. Proceeding with this trial is not only an enormous waste of party and judicial resources, but it will also undermine the ability of the parties to close the transaction.”
In response, Twitter informed that it opposed the motion and that the obstacle to terminating this litigation was not that the company was unwilling to “take yes for an answer.” Instead, it was that the Defendants (Musk and his team) continued to “refuse to accept their contractual obligations,” and that they have, for a long time, “pursued increasingly implausible claims and over and over sought to delay trial on the merits to enforce the Merger Agreement. Discovery has shown each and every one of those claims to be utterly without merit.”
