London: Saudi
billionaire prince Alwaleed bin Talal has invested $300 million in
the microblogging company Twitter, becoming its latest major
investor.
Alwaleed, the nephew of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah, is one of the
wealthiest people in the world, with a net worth of $19.6 billion,
according to Forbes magazine's estimation.
He already owns a seven percent stake in News Corporation, a
"sizeable share" of Citigroup, and is understood to be starting
his own cable news channel, The Telegraph reported Monday.
The prince bought the Twitter stake after "months of negotiations"
through his Kingdom Holding Company, it said.
"Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying
suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth
businesses with a global impact," the newspaper quoted him as
saying.
Twitter had no further comment to make beyond the details of the
investment. The San Francisco microblogging company is now valued
$8.4 billion, despite having yet to turn a sizable profit.
It has over 100 million registered users, who post approximately
one billion tweets a week. One of its other major investors is
Yuri Milner, the Russian billionaire who owns Digital Sky
Technologies and also has major stakes in Facebook and Zynga,
Telegraph said.
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