Twitter demands day in court after Elon Musk asks judge to halt upcoming trial

After spending months in a high-stakes court battle to get out of his April agreement to buy the social media company, Musk reversed course on Monday and offered to close the deal at the original price of $54.20 per share.

The five-day trial regarding the deal is scheduled to begin in Delaware, where Twitter is incorporated, on 17 October.

The company added that one of the banks in the consortium lending Musk $12.5bn said it had yet to be told by him that he intends to close the deal.

Twitter is determined to give Musk no wriggle-room, said Howard Fischer, a partner at New York law firm Moses & Singer.

Shares in Twitter closed down 3.8% at $49.39.