Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said on Thursday that as one of the major shareholders in Twitter he rejected a takeover bid by entrepreneur Elon Musk.
"I don't believe that the proposed offer by Elon Musk ($54.20 [per share]) comes close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects," the prince said in a tweet.
Musk took aim at Twitter Inc with a $43 billion cash takeover offer on Thursday, with the Tesla CEO saying the social media giant needs to be taken private to grow and become a platform for free speech.
Responding to Prince Alwaleed's tweet, Musk said: "Interesting."
He asked "how much of Twitter… the Kingdom own[s], directly [and] indirectly", as well as what Saudi Arabia's "views on journalistic freedom of speech" are.
(The New Arab, Reuters)