UPDATE: The judge in Twitter's lawsuit against Elon Musk has ruled that Musk has until 5 p.m. Oct. 28 to close on an acquisition of the social media platform in order to avoid a trial.
Kathaleen McCormick ruled Thursday over Twitter's objections that the social media platform's lawsuit against Musk is stayed until that date to allow the parties to close on the buyout deal first proposed by Musk in April.
"If the transaction does not close by 5 p.m. on October 28, 2022, the parties are instructed to contact me by email that evening to obtain November 2022 trial dates," McCormick said in the order.
What Happened: Earlier in the day, Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Musk said Twitter Inc TWTR just won't take yes for an answer.
Just days after Musk indicated he was willing to proceed with the original Twitter takeover deal at $54.20 per share, the Tesla chief has asked Twitter to end all litigation before the deal closes, per CNBC.
In a filing with Delaware’s Court of Chancery on Thursday, Musk's team reportedly said Twitter should drop the court date scheduled for mid-October so that necessary financing can be put together to help close the deal by Oct. 28.
"Twitter will not take yes for an answer. Astonishingly, they have insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly putting the deal at risk and gambling with their stockholders’ interests," the filing states.
Musk’s team said the upcoming trial would impede the deal from moving forward because the parties will "remain distracted by completing discovery and an unnecessary trial" instead of allowing the two sides "to turn their focus to securing the debt financing necessary to consummate the transaction."
In a court filing late Thursday, Twitter called Musk's latest request to drop litigation "invitation to further mischief and delay."
The social media platform's lawyer said in a letter to McCormick that Twitter does not trust Musk to follow through.
"Just this morning, a corporate representative for one of the lending banks testified that Mr. Musk has yet to send them a borrowing notice and has not otherwise communicated to them that he intends to close the transaction, let alone on any particular timeline," said plaintiffs' attorney Kevin Shannon.
Musk and Twitter initially agreed on the $44-billion takeover deal in April, but the deal stalled shortly after Musk said the number of bots or spam accounts on Twitter was much higher than the company stated.
Twitter sued Musk in July and the Tesla CEO looked ready for a court battle, but earlier this week, Musk made a proposal to buy Twitter at the original offer price of $54.20 per share.
Twitter acknowledged that it had received the letter and said it intends to close the transaction at $54.20, but it did not say anything about closing the litigation.
It appears Twitter doesn't want to abandon its lawsuit until a deal is closed, and Musk has taken issue with this.
TWTR Price Action: Twitter has a 52-week high of $54.57 and a 52-week low of $31.30.
The stock closed Thursday down 3.61% at $49.75, according to Benzinga Pro.
Dustin Blitchok contributed to this report.
Photo via Shutterstock.
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