Saudi Billionaire Acquires 3.75% Twitter Stake (Report)

LONDON - Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the second largest investor in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has taken a $300 million stake in Twitter, according to the Guardian.

Alwaleed, who has a net worth estimated to be just below $20 billion, has taken the stake in conjunction with his Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) investment firm.

Applying an $8 billion valuation figure for Twitter used by some analysts, the investment amounts to a 3.75 percent stake.

In a statement, Kingdom Holding said that the investment was "the result of several months of negotiations and comprehensive due diligence".

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

Ahmed Halawani, executive director of private equity and international investments at KHC, said that social media will "fundamentally change the media industry landscape in the coming years."

"Twitter will capture and monetise this positive trend," he said.

Alwaleed also holds a 7 percent stake in News Corp. through KHC.

In August social media investor DST, which also owns stakes in Zynga and Groupon, took a $400 million stake in Twitter, said the Guardian.

Last year News Corp. took an initial 9.09 percent stake in Rotana Media Group, Alwaleed's film, TV and music business, with an option to increase this to 18.18 percent over the course of 18 months.