Elon Musk and Twitter have been given just three weeks to complete their historical A$68 deal or the planned trial will go ahead in November.

Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick granted Elon Musk’s request for a stay in an order that gives the parties three weeks to negotiate and close the merger.

“This action is stayed until 5 p.m. on October 28, 2022, to permit the parties to close on the transaction,” McCormick wrote.

“If the transaction does not close by 5 p.m. on October 28, 2022, the parties are instructed to contact me by email that evening to obtain November 2022 trial dates.”

Musk’s motion indicated the merger was on track to close by that date.

This comes after Musk claims Twitter refused to immediately drop their legal suit after he agreed to the original purchase terms last week.

“Twitter will not take yes for an answer,” Musk wrote.

“Astonishingly, they have insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly putting the deal at risk and gambling with their stockholders’ interests.

“Proceeding toward trial is not only an enormous waste of party and judicial resources, it will undermine the ability of the parties to close the transaction.”

Musk claimed that not axing the trail “would send a signal to the market that—despite Defendants’ commitment to perform their obligations under the Merger Agreement and Equity Commitment Letter—Twitter is demanding that the Court impede the deal moving forward.

“Instead of allowing the parties to turn their focus to securing the Debt Financing necessary to consummate the transaction and preparing for a transition of the business, the parties will instead remain distracted by completing discovery and an unnecessary trial.

“In effect, a trial would keep the merger transaction in limbo for longer, casting an unnecessary cloud of uncertainty over the company.”

The trial was originally scheduled to begin on October 17.

Twitter was no doubt hesitant to toss out the suit until the deal was finalised, given Musk’s cold feet in the past.