According to a statement released by the Saudi prince, Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s private office will retain their ownership of Twitter shares valued at $1.89 billion following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media company, making them the joint second largest investors.
Bin Talal, who shared the statement on Twitter on Friday and referred to Musk as “Chief Twit,” stated that the deal was consistent with KHC’s long-term strategy.
Dear friend "Chief Twit" @elonmusk
Together all the way ???????? @Twitter https://t.co/J9rnd013xz pic.twitter.com/bXo6RUaUwk
— الوليد بن طلال (@Alwaleed_Talal) October 28, 2022
Bin Talal founded the company, which is 16.9 percent owned by the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund.
Saudi Arabia, with a population of 34.8 million, had the eighth most Twitter users of any country in the world, with over 12 million users as of January 2022.
Musk, the world’s richest person, announced on Thursday that he had completed a $44 billion acquisition.
“The bird is freed,” Musk tweeted, referring to Twitter’s bird logo and indicating his desire for the company to have fewer restrictions on what can be posted.
the bird is freed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2022
However, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc and a self-described free speech absolutist, has stated that he wants to keep the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division.
According to people familiar with the situation, Musk fired Ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal, and legal affairs and policy chief Vijaya Gadde.
He accused them of deceiving him and investors about the number of bogus accounts on the platform.
According to the sources, Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out.
According to a person familiar with the situation, Musk, who also owns the rocket company SpaceX, intends to become Twitter’s interim CEO.
The acquisition concludes a long-running saga in which Musk first offered to buy Twitter in April, then attempted to back out of the deal before finally completing the purchase to take the social media company private.
In comparison to Friday’s statement, bin Talal initially rejected Musk’s offer in April, claiming that it did not come close to Twitter’s “intrinsic value.”
Musk responded at the time by inquiring about Saudi Arabia’s position on journalistic freedom of expression.
Musk acquired Twitter with the help of several investors, including Larry Ellison, co-founder of software company Oracle, and Qatar Holding, which is controlled by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.
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