Saudi prince buys $300 million stake in Twitter

[lukey372]

RIYADH ? Saudi billionaire Prince Walid bin Talal and his Kingdom Holding Company announced a combined investment of $300 million in the social networking site Twitter, in a statement Monday.

"Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact," Prince Walid said in the statement released on Kingdom Holding's website.

The statement said that the investment was finalised after "several months of negotiations" and represented a "strategic stake" in the social networking site.

Prince Walid, a media mogul and one of the world's richest men, in September announced plans to launch Alarab, a pan-Arab news channel, by 2012, saying the television network will promote freedom of speech.

Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook played a crucial role in spreading information and organising protests in the revolutions that have rocked the Arab world since January.

In Syria today, where the international press has been banned from reporting on the uprising against the regime's bloody crackdown on demonstrators, activists use Twitter, Facebook and other websites to get news on their struggle to the outside world.

"We believe that social media will fundamentally change the media industry landscape in the coming years," said Ahmed Halawani, Kingdom Holding's executive director for private equity and international investments.

Kingdom Holding owns 29.9 percent of the shares in the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, which publishes several leading newspapers and magazines, including the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper and Al Eqtisadieh.

Arabic language tweets have risen sharply since the Arab Spring uprisings, with two million tweets per day recorded in October 2011, compared with only 99,000 tweets per day at the same time last year, according to a November study by Semiocast, an institute that studies social networks.

Arabic is now the eighth most used language on Twitter, registering a 22-fold increase in the number of daily tweets since October 2010, according to the study.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...1bb5b5ccf6.8e1

lukey372 Reviewed by lukey372 on 19th Dec 2011. Saudi prince buys $300 million stake in Twitter RIYADH ? Saudi billionaire Prince Walid bin Talal and his Kingdom Holding Company announced a combined investment of $300 million in the social networking site Twitter, in a statement Monday. "Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact," Prince Walid said in the statement released on Kingdom Holding's website. The statement said that the investment was finalised after "several Rating: 5

[Mr Happy]

I saw this news earlier and it's spread like wild fire but don't get what the big deal is. He owns 7% of News Corp and has investments in Facebook, AOL, Apple, Amazon and loads of other tech companies. He's just expanding his investment portfolio like any other investor. I don't get what the big deal is. $300 million isn't that much when you consider how much Twitter is worth. It's only a small share.

[EsotorisK]

So how do they regain back those investments?

[lukey372]

Sure I mean twitter would be worth somewhat of upto 8 billion dollars but still 300 million dollars would be a large chunk of money to invest in one company.

[nForc3r]

cool, there goes the next myspace lol

[Mr Happy]

cool, there goes the next myspace lol

A buyout and investment are completely different things. Twitter has had loads of investments over the years. I think the last one was in August for $400 million. MySpace was purchased by NewsCorp. A 100% takeover. They controlled it and then poorly managed it. When you invest you don't take control.

[nForc3r]

The only use for Twitter is ability to stock celebrities without getting slapped with a restraining order hahha.

Myspace failed and thats why it was sold for alot less. Twitter is next?

[foxman]

wow! oil money into the web...

[ms7]

He have enough money to spend, so ..if twitter will go down he wont cry to loud.
Anyway, i still don't see twitter goes down too soon..
Is been around for a few years, but who knows..
Who wouldve beliave that myspace will collapse a few years back?

[EsotorisK]

This is the guy