Twitter Stock (NYSE:TWTR)
In trading on Thursday, Twitter stock dropped by 1% as lawyers worked behind the scenes to resolve the disagreement over Elon Musk’s $44 billion offer to purchase Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and take it private.
Elon Musk’s deposition, originally scheduled for this Thursday but now pushed out again, has been postponed until Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Musk’s teams work out the terms of Musk’s new bid to buy Twitter stock for $44 billion (but conditioned on stopping the legal action).
On Wednesday, the Chancellor of the State of Delaware, Kathaleen McCormick, stated that neither party had requested a postponement of the trial. Therefore, the scheduled start date of October 17 remained unchanged.
From a legal standpoint, that trial is rapidly approaching. There will be very little time for fact-finding depositions since the final witness lists for the trial were needed by the end of Wednesday, and there are approaching pretrial draft order deadlines.
WSJ reports that as of late Wednesday, negotiations between the parties continued over the specifics of Musk’s plan to honor the terms of the original agreement.
Before delivering the letter agreeing to proceed at the original price this week, Musk allegedly sought to have the acquisition price decreased. According to the New York Times, he had asked for a discount of up to 30%, valuing Twitter stock at about $31 billion, down from its current market valuation of around $39.7 billion. Negotiations last week about a reduction of 10% also failed to bear fruit.
Banks such as Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Barclays, who provided about $13 billion in debt and are now considering selling it for heavy losses (possibly in the billions of dollars) due to volatility in the high-yield and credit markets, have also been a significant focus of the deal discussions.
Unsurprisingly, given Musk’s months-long attempt to back out of the agreement, Apollo Global Management and Sixth Street Partners said they were no longer in discussions to provide finance for the acquisition.
As of 12:39 p.m. EST: Given that “there are several ongoing motions in this action and trial is soon approaching,” McCormick has decided to clarify several important dates in a judgment letter. Musk’s legal team has until Friday at noon on October 7 to answer two outstanding Twitter motions (concerning inadequate deposition testimony by Musk witness Jared Birchall and demanding production of correspondence with the government).
She further states that by Friday, October 7, at 4:30 p.m., Twitter stock must specify the relief it requires if the parties have not addressed Twitter’s fifth discovery motion. Once she gets home on Friday, whatever is submitted has been instructed to be sent there.
Featured Image- Megapixl @ Dolphfyn
Author Shariq Khan 
