Elon Musk now says Twitter ‘will not take yes for an answer’

Days after renewing his offer to acquire Twitter for $54.20 a share, Elon Musk is complaining that it’s now Twitter that is holding up the deal.

The two parties are set to go to court over the disputed acquisition deal, but Musk on Thursday asked the Delaware court to cancel the October 17 trial date. The court quickly moved to stay the trial until October 28, as the New York Times noted, giving the two parties time to close the deal.

Musk’s filing claims that if the litigation were set aside, the deal would close on or around October 28. However, it says, “a trial would keep the merger transaction in limbo for longer, casting an unnecessary cloud of uncertainty over the company.”

The social media site sued Musk in July, claiming he could not back out of his commitment to acquire the company. Now that the deal is back on, Musk argues the case should be dropped. 

“Twitter will not take yes for an answer,” the filing says. “Astonishingly, they have insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly putting the deal at risk and gambling with their stockholders’ interests.”

After Musk earlier this week informed Twitter and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of his intent to follow through with the deal, Twitter responded: “The intention of the Company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share.” 

Musk this week said he would renew his offer if the litigation were dropped and if he secured the necessary financing. In his court filing Thursday, Musk said that “Twitter resists a stay [of the litigation] based on the theoretical possibility of a future failure to obtain the Debt Financing.”

However, it continues, “no such failure has occurred to date. Quite to the contrary, counsel for the debt financing parties has advised that each of their clients is prepared to honor its obligations.” 

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Twitter has been in a state of turmoil since April, when Musk first said he wanted to buy the social media platform. He lined up $46.5 billion in financing to back his unsolicited bid, relying on loans and $33.5 billion from his own equity. As the deal materialized, some of Twitter’s top executives were pushed out of the company and others resigned. 

However, Musk quickly began suggesting the deal was “on hold“, complaining about the number of fake accounts on the Twitter platform. Then in July, Musk said he was backing out of the deal.