Billionaire and Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud has openly rejected Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter for what amounts to more than $40 billion in cash on Thursday, April 14, prompting a word war between the royal and the mogul, as the Tesla billionaire attempts a hostile takeover of the company.
Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud heads the Kingdom Holding Company, a Saudi-based investment and holding company that has stakes in Twitter, among other companies. On Thursday, he tweeted his nonsupport of Musk’s attempt to buy Twitter, according to the New York Post.
“I don’t believe that the proposed offer by @elonmusk ($54.20) comes close to the intrinsic value of @Twitter, given its growth prospects. Being one of the largest & long-term shareholders of Twitter, @Kingdom_KHC & I reject this offer,” he tweeted.
Musk, whose offer to take over Twitter came out after he rejected a board seat when he became the largest stockholder of the company, retaliated online by questioning the credentials of Saudi Arabia’s freedom of speech and expression, Gizmodo reported.
“Interesting. Just two questions, if I may. How much of Twitter does the Kingdom own, directly & indirectly? What are the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom of speech?” Musk tweeted back.
The SpaceX founder has been in a battle to take control of Twitter, claiming that the platform has not been meeting its potential as the space for free speech that he claims to believe it could become.
“I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” he said in an SEC filing for the takeover.
“However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company,” Musk continued.
Musk is one of Twitter’s most followed and most prolific users, and after the announcement of his Twitter stake, the billionaire formed polls and tweets brainstorming ideas on how to make the platform better, from less serious ones like removing the “w” from the name to adding an edit function on already-sent tweets.
Twitter is currently reviewing the proposal, and it is unclear if the stakeholders of the company would accept the offer.
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