Saudi Prince Confirms He Will Continue Ownership of Twitter Stock

Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Company and the private office of Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal said in a statement that they will continue their ownership of stock in Twitter following the takeover of the company by Elon Musk. The shares are valued at $1.89 billion, according to the statement dated Friday. The prince and the holding company are jointly the second largest shareholder after Musk. Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding Company is 16.9% owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, whose chairman is Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, also the country’s crown prince. Alwaleed tweeted a copy of the statement and addressed it to “Dear friend ‘Chief Twit’ @elonmusk,” adding “Together all the way @Twitter.” Musk took over as owner of Twitter on Friday in a $44 billion deal, announcing the closing of the deal with a tweet reading: “The bird is freed.” He reportedly immediately fired CEO Parag Agrawal and two other top executives. He has said he plans to relax the Twitter’s limits on what he calls “free speech” and to reinstate users that were banned for life for repeatedly violating the platform’s rules, including former US President Donald Trump.