Hours before, the businessman’s lawyers requested the suspension of the litigation initiated by Twitter to force him to execute the acquisition of the company agreed in April, and assured that the operation should be concluded “around October 28”.
Musk agreed to buy the Blue Bird Network in April, but then unilaterally retraced his steps a few weeks later.
But on Monday, with the trial scheduled for October 17 approaching, Musk sent a letter to Twitter proposing to go ahead with the purchase at the initially proposed price of $54.20 per share, for a total of $44 billion. provided that the company stopped the lawsuit and he obtained the necessary funds.
Twitter then indicated that it maintained the “intention” to conclude the transaction.
According to the Bloomberg agency, the negotiations to conclude a new agreement at the originally agreed price are locked on the financing of Twitter’s debt, an issue that Musk would have put on the table on Monday.
For Musk’s lawyers, their client “agreed to do” what Twitter asked for. “However, Twitter refuses to accept this positive response. Incredibly, (the firm) insists on continuing the trial,” they say.
Lawyers for Twitter on Thursday opposed Musk’s request for a postponement of the trial, calling the possibility an attempt at “procrastination.”
Judge Kathaleem McCormick mediated: “The process is suspended until October 28, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. (local) to allow the parties to conclude the transaction. If it is not concluded, the parties will have to contact me by mail to obtain the dates of a trial in November”.
– Financing-
“Continuing the trial is not only a huge waste of resources for the parties and the court, but it will reduce the ability of the parties to conclude the transaction,” Musk’s representatives say.
“Twitter refuses to end the litigation due to the theoretical possibility of a future failure to obtain the financing” necessary for the operation, they emphasize.
But “that failure does not happen now,” they emphasize. “On the contrary”, the financiers indicated “to be ready to honor their obligations”, maintained the jurists. “The unsubstantiated speculation by Twitter was refuted by the banks themselves.”
– Question of confidence –
The group argues that they have no reason to trust the richest man in the world.
“On numerous occasions,” Musk’s environment “did not respect his obligation to do everything possible to close the operation,” the company’s lawyers replied.
“For months, (Musk) has launched increasingly implausible accusations to delay the process (…), accusations that were shown to be baseless” during the preliminary hearings, they assured.
“Now, on the eve of the trial, they say they want to close” the operation. “’Have confidence,’ they say; ‘it’s serious this time’, ironizes the social network.
Musk’s lawyers for their part point out that “there are two possibilities.” “The most likely is that the debt is financed (…) and that the shareholders receive their money faster than if Twitter won the trial, and won the appeal (…), a process that could take months.”
The second possibility is that the financing fails, in which case, “Twitter would have new elements to contribute to its lawsuit,” they argue on Musk’s side.
Musk bombarded Twitter with criticism before and after the signing of the purchase agreement in April, accusing it in particular of censoring users and not fighting enough against spam and fake accounts.
The billionaire founder of Tesla justified his backtracking on the purchase agreement, stating that the proportion of automated accounts in the social network was vastly higher than the 5% that the company declared.
This week, one of Twitter’s lawyers reported two reports from data analysis companies hired by the businessman, Cyabra and CounterAction, which evaluated the number of false accounts in a range of 11% the first and 5.3% the second. second.
