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Saudi Prince Buys Twitter Stake
Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has bought a $300m stake in Twitter. The buy comes after months of talks and constitutes 'a strategic stake' according to the Prince's company, Kingdom Holding Co. (KHC).
The percentage share acquired has not been released, although with the company now valued at around $8.4bn and Russian Internet investment firm DST having recently bought a 5% stake for $400m, it's likely to be between 3 and 4% of the microblogging giant.
Alwaleed, the nephew of KSA's King Abdullah, has an estimated net worth of $19.6 billion (Forbes est.), and has many investments in the media and entertainment in the Arab world and beyond - he has shares in Apple and about 7% of News Corp. His company holds a 29.9% stake in the Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG) - which despite its name has little connection with MR but includes advertising and PR company Al Khaleejiya and printing firm Al Madina. He also owns a 'sizeable share' of global bank Citigroup and is planning the launch of an Arabic news channel to focus on freedom of speech and changes across the Middle East - a reference to the 'Arab Spring' uprisings in which Twitter is said to have played a part.
KHC spokesman Ahmed Halawani, Executive Director of Private Equity and International Investments, said in a statement reported by AP that social media would 'fundamentally change the media industry landscape in the coming years' and that Twitter would 'capture and monetise this positive trend'. Alwaleed himself believes Twitter to match his investment target of 'promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact'. Twitter's passed 100m active monthly users in September but expects 2011 revenues of no more than $200m.
Twitter has made no comment on the deal other than to confirm some details of the investment.
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