Musk is seeking to stop the lawsuit on October 17 to close the Twitter deal on agreed terms
The Twitter profile page belonging to Elon Musk is seen on an Apple iPhone mobile phone.
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Three days after Elon Musk said he wanted to go back on his original deal to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, the Tesla boss is asking the social media company to end all legal action to close the deal.
In a filing with Delaware̵[ads1]7;s Court of Chancery on Thursday, Musk’s side said Twitter should drop the court date scheduled for Oct. 17 so the necessary financing can be raised to close the acquisition by Oct. 28.
“Twitter won’t take no for an answer,” the filing said. “Astonishingly, they have insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly jeopardizing the deal and gambling with their shareholders’ interests.”
Musk’s lawyers argue that by Twitter not agreeing to set aside the lawsuit, the upcoming lawsuit will “impede the deal moving forward.”
“Instead of allowing the parties to turn their focus to securing the debt financing necessary to complete the transaction and prepare for a transition of the business, the parties will instead remain distracted by completing discovery and an unnecessary trial,” the attorneys wrote.
Twitter sued Musk in July to try to force the world’s richest man to stick to his purchase agreement, which was signed in April. Musk appeared ready to take the case to court, as legions of his text messages were released in preliminary filings.
While Twitter shareholders, on the company’s recommendation, agreed to Musk’s purchase price in September, Twitter may now be reluctant to walk away from the lawsuit without certainty that all funding is available to close the deal.
Musk’s lawyers said that “by far the most likely possibility is that the debt is funded, in which case the deal will close on or around October 28,” although they did not elaborate on exactly how the debt would be funded. The lawyers added that “the lawyers for the Debt Financing Parties have advised that each of their clients is willing to fulfill their obligations under the Bank Debt Commitment Letter on the terms and subject to the satisfaction of the conditions set out therein.”
Morgan Stanley and Bank of America are among the banks that originally agreed to provide $12.5 billion in debt to Musk. Since then, markets have retreated, particularly for risky technology assets.
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