Elon Musk has three weeks to close his $44 billion takeover of Twitter, a judge in Delaware said on Oct. 6.
The decision came after Musk told Twitter that he was ready to accept the original terms of the deal—buying the social media company for $54.20 per share—if it dropped the litigation, which was set for an Oct. 17 trial in Wilmington.
Twitter said, well, no. “The obstacle to terminating this litigation is not, as Defendants say, that Twitter is unwilling to take yes for an answer,” Twitter’s lawyers wrote (pdf). “The obstacle is that Defendants still refuse to accept their contractual obligations.” (Musk is the defendant here.)
Twitter called Musk’s motion to stay the case “an invitation to further mischief and delay.”
The company is plainly unwilling to drop its lawsuit until the deal is closed. And why would it feel otherwise, after all of the games that Musk has played throughout this six-month ordeal?
A little win for Elon Musk
Still, Musk caught a break. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, the judge hearing this case, gave him a three-week window in order to close the deal, she said, or else there will be a trial in November. Musk has until Oct. 28 to secure his financing and tie up every single loose end.
Musk already has a November trial date in a separate Delaware matter, a shareholder lawsuit over his 2018 pay package as Tesla CEO. The suit claims that Musk’s compensation package was excessive and breached his fiduciary duties to shareholders.
The clock is ticking for Musk, who seems eager to avoid a deposition and court appearance. Recently, many of his text messages with bankers and Silicon Valley’s billionaire class came to light through discovery in the Twitter case. He has three weeks. He better start texting.