Kingdom Holding Platform (KHC) of Saudi Arabia and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s private office will continue to own shares of Twitter worth at $1.89 billion after Elon Musk acquired the social media company, making them jointly the second-largest investors, the Saudi prince announced in a statement.
The acquisition was in keeping with KHC’s long-term strategy, according to Bin Talal, who tweeted the announcement on Friday and referred to Musk as “Chief Twit.”
The Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund owns 16.9% of the business, which was founded by bin Talal.
With more than 12 million Twitter followers as of January 2022 and a population of 34.8 million, Saudi Arabia ranked seventh among all nations in the world.
The world’s richest man, Musk, declared on Thursday that a $44 billion deal had been finalised.
Musk wrote, “The bird is released,” making apparent reference to Twitter’s bird logo and expressing his wish for the firm to impose fewer restrictions on what can be posted.
The self-described free speech zealot and CEO of Tesla Inc. has also stated that he wants to stop the platform from turning into an echo chamber for hatred and division.
According to those familiar with the situation, Musk dismissed Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and head of law and policy Vijaya Gadde. He had claimed that they had misled him and Twitter’s investors over the prevalence of fraudulent accounts on the site.
The sources added that Agrawal and Segal were removed out of Twitter’s San Francisco offices where they were present when the agreement was finalised.
Contrary to what he said on Friday, bin Talal had previously turned down Musk’s bid in April, claiming it fell short of Twitter’s “intrinsic value.”
Musk responded by inquiring as to Saudi Arabia’s position on free speech for journalists at the time.
Several investors, including Larry Ellison, the co-founder of the software business Oracle, and Qatar Holding, which is owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, contributed money to Musk’s purchase of Twitter.
