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Saudi Prince Alwaleed is second largest shareholder in Twitter

Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal (REUTERS)

Elon Musk’s $44 billion Twitter deal was finalised on Thursday and on Tuesday, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that he has become Twitter’s the second-largest shareholder after Elon Musk.

On Friday, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz tweeted: “Dear friend "Chief Twit" @elonmusk Together all the way @Twitter," and an image of a statement from the prince’s firm, Kingdom Holding, and his private office. It declared that based on Elon Musk’s offer, the prince was rolling over his 34.948 million shares of Twitter (worth $54.20 per share), making me the second largest shareholder in the social media company.

Alwaleed's Kingdom Holding is 16.9% owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund chaired by crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal rose to international prominence after making a big successful bet on Citigroup Inc(C.N)in the 1990s and he was an early investor in Apple Inc.

Meanwhile, US Senator Chris Murphy has demanded that the Saudi Arabian backing for Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter Inc. should be scrutinised by a government panel.

Murphy said he was asking the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) "to conduct an investigation into the national security implications of Saudi Arabia's purchase of Twitter."

“We should be concerned that the Saudis, who have a clear interest in repressing political speech and impacting U.S. politics, are now the second-largest owner of a major social media platform," Chris Murphy said in a tweet on Monday on the social media platform. “There is a clear national security issue at stake and Cfius should do a review."

(With agency inputs)

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