Elon Musk must complete the acquisition of Twitter at the latest this Friday if you want to avoid going to trial against the social network in which, a priori, you are the loser.
The most notorious business controversy of the year may finally end this week or, alternatively, enter a new phase, this time with the two parties face to face in a specialized court of the state of Delaware.
Musk agreed last April to take over Twitter for about $44 billionbut then he backed down, which led the company to sue him to force him to comply with the agreement.
While the trial was being prepared the head of Tesla tried to negotiate a reduction in the price of the operation, but Twitter did not accept andFinally, with the judicial process very close, Musk gave up and announced that he agreed to close the operation under the original terms.
That happened at the beginning of October and, since then, The two sides have been trying to agree all the details, but for now the purchase remains unexecuted as the key date of October 28 approaches.
That day, at 5:00 p.m. US East Coast time (7:00 p.m. GMT), the deadline given to Musk by the judge in charge of the case to close the acquisition if you do not want to proceed with the trial, in which most specialists believe that the social network would prevail.
Twitter, despite the insistence of Musk and to guard their backs against possible new surpriseschose not to withdraw the lawsuit until the purchase became effective and, if this does not happen, he will seek the court to force the billionaire to comply with the agreement.
negotiation
In recent weeks, the always loud Musk has been cautiously silent on Twitter, after a summer in which he did not stop commenting on the social network and his alleged problems while trying to stop his purchase.
Now, the few references he makes to Twitter are rather positive, as when last week he highlighted the “incredible potential” of the platform during the presentation of Tesla’s quarterly results.
At the moment, not much has transpired from the negotiations, but according to anonymous sources told economic media, the two parties continue to work with the aim of closing the operation before the deadline on Friday.
This Tuesday, it became known that some investors in the operation have received documents to prepare the purchase, in a further sign that discussions are on the right track.
Possible obstacles
Once Musk announced earlier this month that he was finally going to proceed with the acquisition, the financing of the operation came to be seen as the main obstacle.
The world’s richest man had originally negotiated with several banks to help him pay for the purchase with multi-billion dollar loans, but months of fighting over the deal damaged Twitter’s image and value, which, combined with a more complicated economic situation, led many analysts to consider that the entities could be reluctant to put the necessary money.
The other possible difficulty, more unexpected, may be in the US government, as Bloomberg reported last week that The Joe Biden Administration would be studying the possibility of submitting the operation to a national security review.
That information came to light after Musk made several comments about war in ukraine highly criticizedamong others by the Government of kyiv, for defending pro-Russian theses.