Saudi Arabian royal Prince Alwaleed bin Talal declared he would not be selling any of his shares in Twitter, the microblogging site. His statement comes as Twitter preparing to go public, with its IPO to be available in the market by late 2013 or early 2014.
The prince is one of the nephews of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. He is the owner of international investment firm Kingdom Holding, which has an investment of nearly USD300 million with the social media giant back in 2011.
In a telephone interview with Reuters last Sunday, Alwaleed said, "Clearly the speed they're moving with shows that they would like to IPO sooner than later. I believe it will happen either this year or early next year."
He added, "Twitter is a very strategic investment for us. We believe that it is just beginning to touch the surface. We have invested USD300 million in the company. We will be selling zero, nothing, at the IPO." He did not indicate if his investment firm would be buying new shares at the IPO.
Twitter had filed for an IPO with US regulatory authorities and announced it through its ubiquitou 140 character tweet. This is the first step of what is predicted to be another highly anticipated IPO since Facebook last year.
Join the Conversation