(Bloomberg) -- A Delaware judge halted a court case against Elon Musk over his $44 billion purchase of Twitter Inc., giving the parties more time to complete the deal.
Delaware Chancery Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick said if the transaction isn’t done by 5 p.m. on Oct. 28, she will set new trial dates in November, according to an order issued Thursday.
Talks between the two sides had snagged after Musk said that his offer was now contingent on receiving $13 billion in debt financing. The original deal didn’t contain such a contingency. Musk said Twitter was resisting halting court proceedings based on the “theoretical possibility of a future failure to obtain the debt financing.”
Within hours of McCormick’s order, Musk began tweeting about his plans for Twitter. “There will be very rapid product evolution,” he wrote in response to another user’s query. “Software engineering, server operations & design will rule the roost,” he continued in another post.In their filing earlier Thursday, Musk’s lawyers had argued that a short pause would not harm Twitter.
Musk’s proposed stay “is an invitation to further mischief and delay,” the platform added. “Until Defendants commit to close as required, Twitter is entitled to its day in Court.”