Twitter takeover: Cases suspended

In the legal battle between Twitter and tech billionaire Elon Musk, the week-long extension becomes apparent. The lawsuit between Twitter and Musk has been adjourned until October 28 by the judge in charge.

If the Tesla boss hasn’t completed its nearly $44 billion takeover of the text messaging service by then, the parties to the dispute will need to prepare for a hearing in November.

The start of the trial, scheduled for October 17, is off the table, with the judge’s decision on Thursday. Musk, who has been wanting to withdraw from the deal for months, surprisingly confirmed his original bid for Twitter on Tuesday. By doing so, he apparently paved the way for a spectacular comeback in the tough takeover dispute. But it has since become clear that distrust on Twitter has run deep and the online service no longer wants to take any risks.

The star entrepreneur and Twitter are still at odds over the key details that need to be worked on to finalize the deal. There have been new attacks recently rather than a convergence, so there is still uncertainty about the outcome of the transaction.

Musk’s lawyers moved on Thursday to stay the case and drop the case. Twitter immediately offered a counter-movement, which the company flatly denied. The judge then gave the parties to the dispute time to clarify their differences.

According to Twitter, Musk has so far kept the back door open to exit the deal, making the acquisition dependent on financing. The company plans to further secure the settlement before the legal dispute is fully resolved. Meanwhile, Musk again took a contradictory path in his court filing that Twitter jeopardized the settlement and the interests of its own shareholders:

In the counterclaim, the online platform’s lawyers made it clear that they no longer trust Musk after months of maneuvering to cancel the purchase. The hurdle isn’t Twitter’s refusal to accept the “yes” answer, but Musk’s still refusal to honor its contractual purchase commitments. Based on certain reservations, Musk wants to implement a plan that allows him to delay the settlement at any time and gain legal certainty in the event of a failure.

The star entrepreneur submitted an acquisition offer for Twitter in the spring and signed a takeover deal with the online service’s board of directors. But just a few weeks later, it became clear that Musk wanted to exit the deal he officially launched in July.

As the reasoning, he accused Twitter of providing false information about the number of fake and automated bot accounts. Twitter went to court to force Musk to comply with the takeover agreement, and observers largely assumed the online service had better arguments on its side for the process.