Elon Musk on Friday (July 15) filed a motion opposing Twitter’s request to speed up testing over its plan to terminate its US$44 billion deal for the social media firm.
Musk’s lawyers said in papers filed in Delaware Chancery Court that Twitter’s “unreasonable request” to move the merger case to trial in two months should be dismissed.
It is the latest move in what promises to be a significant legal showdown between Twitter and Musk. The San Francisco-based company is trying to resolve months of uncertainty for its business as Musk tries to walk away from the deal for Twitter’s “spam bot” problem.
Twitter on Tuesday sued Musk for breaching a deal to buy the social media platform, asking a Delaware court to order the world’s richest man to complete the merger at an agreed price of US$54.20 per share.
The company requested to begin testing in September as the merger agreement with Musk expired on October 25.
“Twitter’s sudden request for warp speed after two months of foot-dragging and obfuscation is its latest tactic to shroud the truth about spam accounts long enough to railroad defendants into closing,” Musk’s filing said.
Musk’s lawyers argued that the controversy over false and spam accounts is fundamental to the value of Twitter and is extremely fact- and expert-intensive. He said its discovery would require substantial time and requested the test date to be on or after February 13 next year.
The debt financing package offered by banks to acquire Musk expires in April 2023. That means the deal could collapse if testing begins in February and doesn’t end by April.
Twitter declined to comment on Musk’s latest motion. Twitter shares fell nearly 1 per cent in extended trading
