By IANS,
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.