Saudi prince buys 300-million-dollar stake in Twitter

Author: Nehal El-Sherif, Andy Goldberg

   Riyadh/ San Francisco (dpa) - Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal announced on Monday that he had bought a stake in the networking website Twitter in a 300-million-dollar deal.

   The Kingdom Holding Company, an investment firm founded by Al-Waleed, said that the "strategic deal comes after several months of negotiations."

   Al-Waleed is a nephew of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz. His net worth is estimated by Forbes magazine to be 19.6 billion dollars and he is well-known as a strategic investor is such iconic companies as Apple, Citigroup and News Corp.

  "The deal of 2012 is a gift to every Arab citizen. It demonstrates our ability to identify promising investment opportunities that are characterized by high growth as well as global presence and impact," Al-Waleed said in a statement.

   Twitter, one of the most popular networking and microblogging websites, has played a key role in the Arab uprisings that began this year. Activists have used it to spread news of protests and arrests during their rallies against Arab leaders.

  “We believe that social media will fundamentally change the media industry landscape in the coming years.Twitter will capture and monetize this positive trend,” Ahmed Halawani, a KHC Executive said.

   Twitter, which claims to have more than 100 million users around the world, is said to be planning an IPO within two years. It raised 800 million dollars in June from a variety of investors in a deal that reportedly valued the company as high as 8 billion dollars. 

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