Elon Musk filed a motion on Friday that turned down Twitter Inc.’s (TWTR.N) request to speed up a preliminary hearing about his plan to back out of his $44 billion deal to buy the web-based entertainment company.
In papers filed with the Delaware Chancery Court, Musk’s lawyers said Twitter’s “unwarranted request” to rush the consolidation case to a trial in two months should be turned down.
It is the latest step in what looks like it will be a big legal battle between Twitter and Musk.
The San Francisco-based company is trying to figure out how long its business could be at risk while Musk tries to leave the deal over what he calls Twitter’s “spam bot” problem.
Twitter sued Musk on Tuesday for breaking the deal to buy the online entertainment platform. It asked a Delaware court to force the world’s richest person to finish the merger at the agreed-upon price of $54.20 per share.
The organisation said that the first phase would begin in September because the consolidation agreement with Musk ends on October 25.
“Twitter’s sudden request for twist speed after two months of stalling and confusion is its latest attempt to hide the truth about spam accounts, even if it means forcing people to close their accounts,” Musk’s document said.
Musk’s lawyers said that the fight over fake and spam accounts is important to Twitter’s value and is very real and master-focused.
They said that it would cost a lot of money to make it public, and they gave a tentative date of Feb. 13 or later, a year from now.
The obligation funding package that banks agreed to for Musk’s purchase ends in April 2023. That means the deal could fall if the preliminary started in February and wasn’t finished by April.
Twitter didn’t say anything about Musk’s latest move. In general trading, some parts of Twitter were down about 1 percent.
