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The
San Francisco-based company is seeking to resolve months of
uncertainty for its business as Musk tries to walk away from the
deal over what he says are Twitter's "spam" accounts that he
says are fundamental to its value.
Twitter has asked Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware
Court of Chancery to find Musk breached the merger agreement and
to order him to complete the merger at the agreed price of
$54.20 per share.
Twitter wants an expedited trial in September because it said
Musk is smearing Twitter and undermining operations by refusing
to approve business initiatives, such as an employee retention
plan.
The company said adopting Musk's "slow walk" proposal for a 2023
trial leaves little time for additional litigation over deal
financing if Musk is ordered to close. The deal financing
expires in April.
Musk on Friday accused Twitter of seeking a "warp speed" trial
to "railroad" him into buying the company.
Since agreeing in April to buy Twitter, Musk has questioned
whether the company misled regulators about fake accounts and
bots and said he has proposed a February trial to give him
adequate time to investigate.
Twitter's stock has slumped from above $50 a share when the deal
was announced to as low as $32.55 last week.
Minor Myers, a professor at UConn School of Law, said he
expected McCormick to adopt a trial schedule close to Twitter's
proposal.
"The longer it drags on, the more distraction for Twitter," he
said. "There's more risk, more things that can go wrong."
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by
Noeleen Walder and Rosalba O'Brien)
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