Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal acquires $300-mn stake in Twitter

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and his Kingdom Holding Company have acquired a strategic stake in microblogging site Twitter for $300 million.

Kingdom Holding, the Riyadh, Alwaleed's Saudi Arabian investment vehicle, said in a statement to the Saudi bourse today that the investment was "the result of several months of negotiations."

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

Alwaleed is a nephew of the Saudi king is worth $19.4 billion aaccording to Forbes 2010 World's Billionaires List.

Saudi Arabia stock exchange-listed Kingdom Holding, 95-per cent owned by Prince Alwaleed, also holds stakes in Citigroup, News Corp, Apple, Time Warner, Pepsico, Hewlett Packard. Procter & Gamble, the hotel management companies for the Four Seasons and Fairmont hotels, several large Saudi companies, and other investments.

With around 250 million tweets a day, online social networking and microblogging site Twitter is worth around $8 billion, its CEO, Dick Costolo had said in October (See: With 250 million tweets a day, Twitter worth around $8 billion: CEO, Dick Costolo).