Saudi prince, a long-term investor in Twitter, 'rejects' Elon Musk offer

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has opposed billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s attempt to buy Twitter.

Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that Musk, who currently owns slightly more than 9 per cent of its stock and is the company’s biggest shareholder, provided a letter to the company on Wednesday that contained a proposal to buy the remaining shares of Twitter that he doesn’t already own. Musk offered $54.20 per share of Twitter’s stock. He already owns 9 nine cent in the microblogging site.

The Tesla CEO, however, said he would no longer be joining the social media company’s board of directors.

Talal was very vocal on Musk’s offer. “I don’t believe that the proposed offer by @elonmusk ($54.20) comes close to the intrinsic value of @Twitter given its growth prospects,” Talal tweeted.

“Being one of the largest & long-term shareholders of Twitter, @Kingdom_KHC & I reject this offer,” Talal said, tagging a post that claimed the Kingdom and he own a 5.2 per cent stake in Twitter.

Also read: Elon Musk says he has ‘Plan B’ if Twitter board rejects $43bn offer

Responding to the Saudi Prince’s tweet, Musk asked two questions.

“Interesting. Just two questions, if I may. How much of Twitter does the Kingdom own, directly & indirectly? What are the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom of speech?” he asked in a tweet.

“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk said in the filing on Thursday.

However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company.

Shares of Twitter jumped nearly 12 per cent before the market open.