Saudi prince, who is major Twitter shareholder, rejects Elon Musk offer to buy company
‘Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it,’ Tesla boss said in letter to Twitter board
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Your support makes all the difference.A Saudi prince, who is major Twitter shareholder, says he will reject Elon Musk’s $43bn offer to buy the company.
Al Waleed bin Talal took to Twitter to say that he was rejecting the entrepreneur’s cash offer for the social media platform because it was too low.
“I don’t believe that the proposed offer by @elonmusk ($54.20) comes close to the intrinsic value of (Twitter) given its growth prospects. Being one of the largest & long-term shareholders of Twitter, @Kingdom_KHC & I reject this offer.”
The prince runs the Saudi-based holding company KHC, and he also shared a grab of a 2015 tweet in which he announced it had increased its stake in Twitter to 5.7 per cent.
Mr Musk, who is the company’s largest shareholder with a 9.2 per cent stake, announced his takeover bid for Twitter in the early hours of Thursday morning.
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“I am offering to buy 100% of Twitter for $54.20 per share in cash, a 54% premium over the day before I began investing in Twitter and a 38% premium over the day before my investment was publicly announced,” Mr Musk said in a letter to Twitter board chairman Bret Taylor.
Mr Musk, who has a personal wealth of around $260bn, according to Bloomberg, says that Twitter must go private for the changes he views as necesary to be made.
“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,” said Mr Musk in his letter. “Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it.”
And he said he “would need to reconsider my position as shareholder”, if his offer is not accepted.
Twitter’s board was reportedly meeting on Thursday to discuss the offer, and the company was holding an all-hands meeting with staff to discuss the situation.
Meanwhile, the White House says it has no comment on Elon Musk’s bid to buy the social media platform.
“This is an offer by a private investor,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters onboard Air Force One.
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