According to CNBC, Bin Talal along with his investment firm Kingdom Holding together own more than 5 percent of Twitter. Of this, the prince holds about 30,100,000 shares, while his company doubled its investment to 0.72 percent, or almost 4,850,000 shares. He now owns approximately 35 million shares when including those owned by his investment arm, Kingdom Holding Company.
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Call it the Jack Dorsey effect: Following this weeksnews that the co-founder would return to the helm at Twitter, billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed decided toup his stake in the social media company.
Twitter is attempting to revive its flagging business by launching a new retail platform and is thought to be considering changing its 140-character tweet limit.
In July, Bin Talal the grandson of King Abdul-Aziz Alsaud, the founder and first ruler of Saudi Arabia, made headlines when he announced he would give his $32bn fortune to charity when he dies. The stock traded downwards over heavy volume yesterday, as it slumped almost 2% to close at $27.72.
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The announcement comes a couple of months after Alwaleed was critical of Twitter’s management and spoke against Dorsey succeeding Dick Costolo when he stepped down as CEO. According to the Twitter’s blog, users will now see a new lightning bolt shaped tab on their screens, which if clicked upon would allow them to discover global stories live.
