October 19, 2022
The Elon Musk v Twitter trial has been paused by Judge Kathaleen McCormick, to allow the two parties to work out a deal.
On October 4, Musk finally agreed to pay US$54.20 per share for Twitter, which is the same as the initial deal he proposed in April 2020. If the deal is closed, the transaction would be worth a whopping $44 billion.
Two days later, Musk’s lawyers filed a motion to stay the trial. They argued that there is no reason for the trial to continue, since both parties agreed to make the deal. In response to Musk’s filing, Twitter’s legal team filed their own declaration that Musk had not met his contractual obligations.
Musk’s team previously said they expected to close the deal by October 28. Judge McCormick stayed the action until 5 pm on October 28, 2022, and if the transaction does not close, the parties will contact the judge to obtain November 2022 trial dates.
Although Musk seems confident that his team will be able to close the deal, Reuters recently reported that Apollo Global Management and Sixth Street Partners are no longer in talks to finance the deal. The two backers, along with other investors, were previously looking to commit more than $1 billion in financing for the deal.
Author: Alexa Cheung