Prince Alwaleed to Buy $300 Million Stake in Twitter

Prince Alwaleed to Buy $300 Million Stake in Twitter Saudi Prince Pumps $300 Million Into Twitter | TechCrunch

@Irwan Fahmy
how many percentage that Kingdom Holding Company will get from this investment? #curious
@Robin Wauters
Not disclosed.
@Roberto Inetti
"KHC bought a 3 percent stake in Twitter, which means the investment values the company at $10 billion"
@Irwan Fahmy
Roberto Inetti thanks for update
@Nubi Kayode
For real? $300milion investment in Twitter. Does Twitter need the money? #JustAsking [perhaps some thing like an Arab Founders Fund should have been a better move].
@Robin Wauters
They may have purchased a large stack of shares on secondary markets, but best not speculate until Twitter comes back with more details on the transaction.
@Nubi Kayode
Robin Wauters definitely going to be watching to see what Twitter's got to say.
@Shahed Khan
Companies raise funds when they don't need the money. It's a strange concept, but that's how start-ups work. Take this for example, Twitter has hundreds of millions of dollars in their bank account, but a few hundred more won't hurt. It's all about expanding and reaching different markets. Like Robin said, best to hear from Twitter and why they decided to raise the additional capital.
@Nubi Kayode
Hello Shahed Khan. I hope you don't consider Twitter as a start-up? I do understand that startups do need funding but again it's Twitter - a start up? Let's see what they got to say for 'em selves [as I don't see anything really happening anytime soon after the New New Twitter that'd they need $300million for]
@Marvelle JayChizza Ballentine
Robin Wauters I think this transaction should be reviewed by the Obama administration. That Twitter would accept this money behooves me, every bit of it is oil money. Since 1920 folks have been living in hell over oil. Saudi shares NO values with us and women are still second class humans. Again, why take THEIR money of all potential suitors? #perplexed
@Alexander Vernon
That's what I'm asking, what do they now do with the money? They raised approx. 500m a few months back anyway, I suppose at such an absurd overvaluation, you just say yes.
@Mikey Mikati
Shahed Khan, apparently this was not a Twitter decision. As I read the article, I gathered it was "unexpected".
@Ryan Nelson
Who are you to say Twitter doesn't need money? In the technology world, social media empires NEED money to back the product, and service they provide. If you knew what Twitter's bills looked like, you'd probably change your tune. How's 19.3M for annual electricity consumption? Remember, Twitter is FREE, and as long as it raises money, it will remain free. It's a vice. Whether you like it or not (I don't), it's a much needed service the world needs to fuel evolution and history.
@Ciarán Norris
I wonder what the official Saudi line is on Twitter's role in countries like Bahrain?
@Ralph Barbagallo
Nothing like investing $300 mil to get your hands on the local big red button and shut it down in case of popular uprising.
@Goo Toor
Normally they invest in Blue Chip companies.
@Lex Alexander
$300 million in Twitter? I hope it's worth it.
@Robin Sagacious Ng
investing in twitter will give them the power to shutdown or blackout the service in the middle east region if they have a major stake in it. :) Arab Spring = Facebook & Twitter.
@Gavin Engel
Bingo.
@Nubi Kayode
That's a perspective. #MakesSense though.
@Faisal Alsaad
If you know who is Prince AlWaleed Bin Talal, you wouldn't have said so, he is one of the most liberal known-figures in the middle east, so, your theory is wrong :)
@Roy Eldar
Faisal Alsaad I know Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal from Busta Rhymes notorious and controversial hip hop song "Arab money".
@Robin Sagacious Ng
Faisal Alsaad my apologies. He is a good man but the concerns of the organization operations and objectives may not be within his control.
@Kervin Pierre
Twitter has survived western governments for years now. I suspect they'll do just fine with everyone else.
@Eduardo D Jr Barrete
Faisal Alsaad you're Absolutely right!
@Faisal Alsaad
Roy Eldar haha.. well, Busta's friend cannot go wrong, I guess :)
@Zach Howe
If they're investing in Twitter, why would they want to cripple it? It's beneficial to them that Twitter grows. Please, think before you post nonsense.
@Robin Sagacious Ng
Zach Howe these guys have enough money that one can imagine and investing in startups which does not guarantees returns is not a sound investment. interesting investment since they are not going for returns and what else should that be? the saudi princes don't need money. every investment is a toy to them
@Akhil Alfons K
So desperate to control Twitter? Nothing like investing $300 mil to get your hands on the local big red button and shut it down in case of popular uprising...
@Uyai William Ukpe
oh pls, quit the bigotry, would ya. saudi , emirates and qatari entrepreneurs are very liberal peeps
@
This investment has been done with the money that we spent for the high priced gas they sell to us. Silicon Valley needs to quickly start producing the batteries to power our homes and cars. Let us go green right now! However, Twitter needs the money and it is a very good tool. The big companies, Apple, eBay and Amazon have very good deals for the holidays. http://tiny.cc/m10o9
@Rafi Mohammed
Hey you religious bigot
@Yoni Ende
What is the latest on twitters ad numbers v their expenses?
@Ron Villejo
Many thanks for this report, Robin. I imagine that with the great wealth and diverse holdings of Prince Alwaleed, this is a relatively small amount. Still, I'm sure the top guys at Twitter are very appreciative. That said, I am personally not that sold on Twitter, at least not yet. I'm very active on it, but it impresses me as mostly a fast running Timeline with relatively little actual engagement. More for posting and publicizing, and less so for interacting or conversing. Facebook and LinkedIn, even YouTube, are superb on both counts. I would enjoy hearing from others who agree and disagree with me!
@Steve Vallas
I've found my experience to be the exact opposite. FB in particular lacks the engagement of Twitter. Particularly with the edge algorithm dictating what gets seen and what doesn't. Different strokes for different folks!
@Ron Villejo
Many thanks, Steve! I don't put any stock into Facebook's own Timeline, so I just ignore it. That issue about algorithms is an interesting, complicated one. YouTube, e.g., makes recommendations based on our favorites, likes, and history. I did a little experiment, and deleted everything in these folders, and YT had no recommendations for me. Before I deleted these, just one or two of its recommendations appealed to me. My point? No matter how sophisticated their algorithms are, if these are directed merely on our behavior within their particular site, then these are bound to fall short or, worse, be off-track. I think one reason many of us on Facebook don't like its algorithms for deciding what we see or don't see is, it's not always relevant. Also, we don't like anyone telling us what we ought to see or not. To me, Google is both exciting and scary. I put more faith in them to know what we really want. Why? Because their algorithms are everywhere we are: search, Android, gmail, Google+ etc. Back to Twitter, may I ask how you engage others there? I'm making progress in this regard, as I'm gradually figuring out its algorithms. But, yes, all things considered, Facebook is still number one in its (social media) class.
@WIssam Aboueida
what a waste!
@Mohamed El-Aarag
looool
@Azam Khan
do u know what kind of data insight they will have access to? hahahah.
@Ryan Nelson
Probably not much. These Twitter folks are smart! This is why the deal took so long to negotiate. I would bet my sorry paycheck that Twitter amended the contract a thousand times to make sure the investors have enough visibility to satisfy them but, limited control. Who would give away a US company valued at over 10 Billion?
@Crook Mez
http://www.socialcubix.com/services/mobile/iphone-application-development I also agree because twitter is really working hard enough to attract traffic and compete Facebook.
@Rohit Raj
Oil to tweets. Talk about transition.
@Rashid Ebrahim
This is going to be quite interesting. I'm really looking forward to Twitter's response!
@Shanmuga Subramanian
Whose money is it? People's money? :D
@Thomas McGuire
Perception wise at least, Twitter+Saudi Arabia!= Good idea.
@Pouco Pirata
I smell Rupert Murdoch behind this not prince Alwaleed, but we will see, I bet the shares will end up in his hands.
@Kervin Pierre
How is this any different from Microsoft's $300 mil investment into facebook? Plus Sovereign Wealth Funds are very common and invest large stakes in blue stocks worldwide. This is nothing special at all.
@Michel Tucker
"According to Wikipedia" --> Seriously?
@Jonathan Gross
http://xkcd.com/978/
@Oye Aborishade
For a company with 100 million users, twitter's revenue has been pretty good this year.
@Thomas Fisher
Good. Maybe they'll add more server space so we stop seeing those "sorry, Twitter is over capacity" messages so often. I swear Twitter spends less on server capacity than other companies with as often as I see that message.
@Wael Baidas
awesome move for social media.
@Carlos Rincon Eckardt
Even if this where the Onion News Network, this article couldn't possible be funnier... and as for the savy behind the investment it is well known that this Saudi Princes will pump a shitload of cash into whatever makes them look smart... even if they don't have a fucking clue!
@Ronalds Siliņš
http://Survey-Faq.com?ref=2500924 Up to 1000$ per month.
@Chris J K Lewis
seriously..don't bother!
@Arinze Ifediba
I think as a seasoned investor that the prince is, he could have found several other viable investment(start-up or Blue chip) to park $300 millie. I gues time will prove whether or not the ROI from twitter was worth it.
@Bader Al-Mutairi
I'm really sad now..Alwaleed takes over control of Twitter.
@Ini Asangansi
I guess this is just a first step in that direction. expect more in 2 months time.
@Tadeusz Szewczyk
So the overall Twitter funding according to TechCrunch is approx 1.2 billion while 300 million out of its is from Saudi Arabia. Thus the king's family funds 1/4 of Twitter. This is enough to make worthless for any upcoming democracy movements in Bahrain and elsewhere in the area. Peak Oil meets Peak Democracy.
@Robbie Burns
It's 3% of the company. They have relatively little clout with 3% ownership.
@Serge Bronstein
arab spring - not the best name for new brand of soap.
@Broad Castic
Damn you, James Altucher! lol http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/17/facebook-shareholders-suck-or-why-this-is-not-bubble-2-0/
@Edison Wang
Where's Max's comment?
@Paul Mizen
some of you are so deep thinking, this is good as I don't have the time and we need people like you keep up the good work.
@Ismail Aldalo
I think this transaction is empowering Twitter more for the Saudi Prince; they could use this money for development their plan, and newer looks, and second motivates buyers to invest in it. way to go, for global economy and marketing who uses Twitter.
@Mohak Gambhir
Prince Alwaleed commented: “Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact.”. -- So basically they were under a rock before they "identified" twitter?
@Aurelia Dean
Does this mean their servers will be better and I won't see that fail whale anymore?
@Greg Maletic
How to see this as anything other than evidence that Twitter's revenue strategies aren't working?
@Anbu Jey
So, We can expect some upgrades in Twitter.. Let's see.. #AnbuJ
@Achin Sharma
$10 bil seems kind of low. Heck groupon once was near that number!
@Ben Buswell
This is definitely not about shutting down Twitter. Faisal Alsaad is right. Could actually be a move to ensure it isn't shut down. Plus the Kingdom is not as at risk for an "Arab Spring" like uprising as other countries.
@Trevor Dietrich
I heard it was either buy the entire country of USA or invest in twitter. He chose the latter.
@Fahad Mubark
alwaleed he invested in apple in 97, he didn't change the role as you say, plz have a look in the hole investment. http://www.kingdom.com.sa/en/IntInvs_TMT.asp
@Karthi Keyan
Prince., Thanks for feeding those lovely birds to fly with that fatty whale.
@Sri Kanajan
Has common sense left the earth or maybe I am just too dumb to understand why a company like twitter can be valued at such great amounts....
@Deeq Jama
$300mil........... eehh!
@Michael Gokturk
Why does Twitter need $1.16 billion in funding? Maybe they can use this latest round to actually come up with a revenue model (cough cough).
@Unemployed Professors
You guys are all pathetic simpletons, Bin Talal holds a high honor in business administration from Menlo College and a masters degree in social science. He's dubbed as the Arabian Warren Buffet. He bailed out citibank for 550 million where his holdings in Citigroup now surpasses way over 1 Billion; In addition he flipped massive profits with AOL, Apple, MCI, Motorola, Fox News, Euro Disney and many other American and European corps. He's presently building the word's longest tower for 10B. Couple of years ago he donated $20M to Harvard. This guy is a savvy investor at his worst. He's worth 20 Billion now which makes him inheritance free self made billionaire! Imbecile ignoramus people stop babbling before hating...