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Delaware judge, Kathaleen McCormick, has given Elon Musk a deadline of 5 pm ET on 28 October to complete a $44bn deal to buy Twitter (TWTR, $52.78), or else she will see him and the social media platform in court soon after. She is unlikely to offer an extension and would favor a quick start for the trial if Musk misses the deadline.
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McCormick was preparing to preside over a trial on 17 October in which Twitter was set to demand that the Tesla chief executive complete a takeover deal he signed in April. Musk had backed out in July but, as the mid-October date loomed, he performed a surprise U-turn and re-committed to buying Twitter after all.
Why it matters
The closure of the deal will put to rest months of speculation that the erratic entrepreneur would abandon the takeover. Musk has touted himself as an advocate of free speech and has been critical of Twitter's approach to monitoring violent or hateful content, which has led to bans on many prominent conservative voices. Musk has described Twitter as “left-biased”. But, Twitter relies on advertising for 90% of its $5bn annual revenue, and making the platform less appealing to advertisers and users by bringing back controversial former account holders could make his job difficult.
