Early Twitter investor plans to retain stake
SAUDI investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has called his stake in social network Twitter a “strategic investment” that he intends to hold on to when it floats.
“We believe that it is just beginning to touch the surface. We have invested $300m (£188m) in the company. We will be selling zero, nothing, at the IPO,” Alwaleed told Reuters.
Alwaleed, who is listed in Forbes as the 26th richest person in the world with a net worth of $20bn, took a holding in Twitter in 2011.
On the social network’s valuation Alwaleed said we could expect to see higher valuations for a company with “tremendous potential”.
“We hear that the company is valued at $14bn to $15bn but there have been trades above this valuation. We believe it might be worth more than that.”
Twitter revealed its intention to go public on Thursday, but further details of Twitter’s initial public offering remain confidential as allowed by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups act (JOBS) for companies with under $1bn in annual revenue.
Twitter has grown since 2006 to more than 500m active users.