A Delaware judge today granted Elon Musk a delay in his trial against Twitter Inc. over his on-again, off-again acquisition despite efforts by Twitter’s lawyers to have the trial proceed as scheduled.

The trial, scheduled to start Oct. 17 after a previous attempt by Musk to have it delayed failed, came about after Twitter filed a lawsuit in July that sought to have Musk follow through on a deal to acquire Twitter.

Lawyers for Musk argued in the Delaware Court of Chancery that the trial should be suspended while he finalizes funding to close the deal to acquire Twitter, with a scheduled date of Oct. 28. Lawyers for Twitter, however, argued that until the deal is closed, Twitter “is entitled to its day in court, to demonstrate its entitlement to specific performances and prove [Musk’s] breaches so as to ensure complete relief in the event the closing should for any reason not occur.”

In response, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick agreed to stay the case pending the transaction’s closing, but only to the date by which Musk’s lawyers said the deal would close. The judge further ruled that if the deal is not closed by 5 p.m. on Oct. 28, both parties should contact her to obtain November 2022 trial dates.

The court hearing comes days after Musk surprised many by announcing that he intended to acquire Twitter for $54.22 per share, the original price. That followed months of Musk trying to back out of the deal by suggesting that Twitter was lying about its user numbers and the number of bots on the platform.

Musk first offered to acquire Twitter in April, initially for $43 billion. The deal then grew to $44 billion later the same month. Although there was some question around financing, the deal initially seemed to be going ahead, but then the issue of spam bots became central to the proceeding.

Musk first raised the issue around spam accounts on Twitter on May 13 and then again at a conference on May 16. Come June 6, Musk accused Twitter of being in “clear material breach” of the acquisition agreement for not providing data on spam accounts.

On June 8, Twitter agreed to give Musk access to a “firehose” data stream to study. Musk’s team then claimed that the firehose did not provide enough information to evaluate Twitter’s prospects as a business, leading to Musk terminating the deal on July 7.

The decision by Musk once again to acquire Twitter does not mean that the deal is a foregone conclusion, however, even putting aside Musk’s often erratic decision-making. The deal depends on debt financing, and though the world’s richest man may be able to raise the financing, his months of trashing Twitter may make would-be financiers cautious about investing their money.

Musk has committed up to $33.5 billion of his own fortune toward the acquisition and is seeking to finance the rest of the $44 billion acquisition price.

Photo: Unsplash