Twitter Accuses Elon Musk Of Delaying Trial By Pushing Back To February

JAKARTA - Twitter Inc on Monday, July 18 accused Elon Musk of trying to "slow down" the company's lawsuit to hold him on a $44 billion acquisition and urged a September trial to ensure the financing of the deal stays in place.

"Millions of Twitter shares are traded daily under the cloud of doubt that Musk created," the company wrote. "No public company of this size and scale should have to endure this uncertainty."

Twitter has sued Musk and asked a Delaware judge to order him to complete the merger at an agreed price of $54.20 per share.

The company said if Musk is ordered to close the deal, it could still take months of additional litigation to cover debt financing, which expires in April. To that end, Twitter asked the judge to reject Musk's proposal to hold a trial in February.

Instead Musk, who is the world's richest man and chief executive of electric car maker Tesla Inc, has accused San Francisco-based Twitter of wanting to speed up the trial to obscure the truth about spam accounts and "speed up" him to buy the company.

The two sides will make their arguments about the proposed trial start date to the Delaware Court of Chancery judges this Tuesday, July 19.

The New York Post reported Monday that Musk's lawyers plan to sue Twitter for gathering more information about spam accounts.

Twitter shares have fallen from more than $50 a share when the deal was announced in April to just under $33 a share last week. Twitter shares closed Monday at 38.41 dollars, up 1.8%.