Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal buys $300 million stake in Twitter

12/19/11, "Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's Kingdom Holding Company has announced a $300m (£194m) investment in social media site Twitter.

The investment follows "several months of negotiations", a company statement to the Saudi stock exchange said.

The prince, who is one of the world's richest men, owns stakes in many well-known companies, including News Corporation.

• He also has investments in a number of media groups in the Arab world.

"Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact," Prince Alwaleed said."

• 12/19/11, "Twitter gets $300m Saudi cash injection," BBC

10/12/2001, "$10 Million? NYC Says No Thanks," CBSnews.com

• Oct., 2001: "Mayor Giuliani at first accepted the $10 million check from Prince Alwaleed."

"A Saudi prince who gave the city a relief check for $10 million, then said U.S. policies were partly to blame for the World Trade Center attack, received a stinging rebuke from the mayor and a rejection of his donation. ... During his visit to the wreckage Thursday, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal called the Sept. 11 terrorist attack "a tremendous crime" and said the suspected mastermind, Osama bin Laden, "does not belong to Islam." "We are here to tell America and to tell New York that Saudi Arabia is with the United States wholeheartedly," he said. But in a written statement handed out by his publicist, the prince said: "At times like this one, we must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack. I believe the government of the United States of America should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause."

Giuliani, who had attended a memorial service with Alwaleed and accepted his $10-million offer to help victims' families, had a harsh response when he learned about the statement. "There is no moral equivalent for this attack," Giuliani said. "The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification when they slaughtered 5,000, 6,000 innocent people. Not only are those statements wrong, they're part of the problem." Sunny Mindel, the mayor's communications director, told The Associated Press: "We are not going to accept the check — period." The prince, an outspoken member of the Saudi royal family, is a major investor in American companies and was No. 6 on Forbes magazine's 2001 list of the world's richest men, with a worth of $20 billion."...ap photo

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