Musk requests stay in Twitter trial

Elon Musk’s attorneys asked a court for a stay Thursday in the trial between the billionaire and Twitter, the social media company he is seeking to buy. 

The attorneys said proceeding with the trial, set to begin later this month, would be “an enormous waste of party and judicial resources” given the agreement Musk and Twitter reached earlier this week to close the transaction, according to a copy of the motion.

“As a result there is no need for an expedited trial to order Defendants to do what they are already doing and this action is now moot,” Musk’s attorneys wrote. 

Musk’s request for a stay in the trial comes just days after he agreed to follow through on his offer to buy Twitter at his original offer price of $54.20 a share, after trying to back out of the deal initially reached this spring. Twitter sued Musk in an attempt to force him to follow through with the purchase.

A Twitter spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

In response to Musk’s letter agreeing to pay for the company under the initial agreement, a Twitter spokesperson said “the intention of the Company is to close the transaction at $54.20 per share.” 

Musk tried to back out of the deal over allegations that Twitter did not follow through on its end of the deal by failing to provide him with accurate information about the number of spam bots on the platform. His accusations were bolstered by a bombshell disclosure by a Twitter whistleblower that in part put into question how the company counted such bots. 

Twitter pushed back on Musk’s allegations, as well as the accusations from the company whistleblower about the counting of spam bots on the platform.