Saudi Prince Increases Stake in Twitter

Media

Published: October 7, 2015 11:25 am

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) is one of the top social media platforms on the planet. It translates into multiple different cultures and allows for more social connectivity in the world. One Saudi billionaire prince has taken a liking to this company and has just divulged an enormous stake in Twitter.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal increased his stake in Twitter over the past six weeks to a whopping 5.17%. In turn, this increase makes him the second biggest shareholder in Twitter, just behind the former CEO and co-founder Evan Williams.

The company has a market cap of roughly $19.2 billion at the current price level. This would value Alwaleed’s stake at nearly $1 billion. His stake consists of 30 million shares directly owned and an additional 5 million shares owned through his Kingdom Holding Co.

Of course, this information comes out just days after Jack Dorsey was announced as the permanent CEO of Twitter. However, Alwaleed did not agree with Dorsey’s appointment to take over for Dick Costolo just this summer.

According to Forbes, Alwaleed clocks in as number 34 on its list of the richest people in the world.

So far in 2015, Twitter has vastly underperformed the market, with the stock down 23% year to date. Looking over the past 52 weeks, the picture does not get any better, and shares are down 48%.

Shares of Twitter were up 2% at $28.19 late Wednesday morning. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $38.23 and a 52-week trading range of $21.01 to $55.99.

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