Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter could falter again

Elon Musk’s protracted Twitter takeover has hit another rocky stage after looking done and dusted earlier this week.

The tech billionaire has been flirting with the prospect of buying the social media platform for months, and on Tuesday a deal finally appeared to have materialized.

However, a new dispute has erupted between the parties over a legal battle related to the previously aborted takeover attempt.

Mr Musk was close to buying the company in April but backed out at the last minute, prompting Twitter to sue to force him to go through with his proposal.

Although the deal appears to be back in place, the $44 billion saga has now taken a different turn after his lawyers accused Twitter of refusing to accept the offer.

It came as Mr Musk’s representatives called for a trial, due to begin Oct. 17 in Delaware, over the first failed takeover, which was set to be scrapped while the reofferee is finalized.

Twitter denied rejecting the offer, accused the Tesla founder of seeking an “open-ended deal” and insisted he was refusing to accept the “contractual commitments” of his April agreement.

It described the recent dispute over the court date as an “invitation to further mischief and delay”.

Now the court has agreed to postpone the hearing until October 28 to allow time for the deal to close, but has not withdrawn it entirely.

Mr Musk’s attorney wrote in a court filing: “Twitter will not take a yes for an answer.

“Amazingly, they have insisted on pursuing this litigation, recklessly jeopardizing the deal and gambling with the interests of their shareholders.”

Twitter shareholders have approved the deal and may be reluctant to schedule the court date as insurance against a second U-turn.

Eric Talley, a law professor at Columbia University, tweeted that Twitter is “absolutely right not to take ‘yes’ for an answer, and everyone knows why.

“They tried that in April and it didn’t go so well.”

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