According to new court filings by Elon Musk’s lawyers, negotiations with Twitter over Musk’s renewed offer to buy the company haven’t been going great and he would like to just call this whole trial thing off, thanks.
Musk’s offer to pay Twitter the previously agreed upon 54.20 per share asking price, made public in an SEC filing this week, came as the Tesla CEO’s latest attempt to avoid a legal fight. The Tesla founder was originally scheduled to begin his deposition today in court as Twitter fights to make him go through with the deal he signed on to in April.
Earlier this week, Twitter said that it plans to close the deal at the original price, but it didn’t say it would be accepting Musk’s renewed offer. That proposal still amounts to the same amount of money as was agreed upon in the spring, but Bloomberg reported on Thursday that it includes some new conditions. For one, Musk has reportedly added language that stipulates closing the deal is contingent on his ability to raise all the funds. Apparently, he didn’t specify that the first time around.
As per today’s court filing, Musk’s team says Twitter still plans to go forward with the trial which is set to kick off on October 17th.
Musk’s lawyers have requested that the court put an end to the trial because he just needs a little time to arrange for financing and this whole deal will be done.
“Astonishingly, [Twitter has] insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly putting the deal at risk and gambling with their stockholders’ interests,” Musk attorney Edward Micheletti said in a court filing.
Twitter General Counsel Sean Edgett sent a message to the site’s employees on Wednesday indicating the company plans to close the deal, according to a report from CNN. “I will continue to keep you posted on significant updates, but in the meantime, thank you for your patience as we work through this on the legal side,” the lawyer reportedly wrote.
Because Twitter is suing Musk in an effort to secure the buyout, it seems unlikely that the tech company will reject a deal outright but it currently has plenty of leverage to make Musk stick to every single sentence of the original deal. The social media giant did not immediately respond to a request for comment but told the New York Times that today’s filing is just “an invitation to further mischief and delay.”
You can read the full court motion embedded below.