Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a major shareholder in the social media company Twitter, has rejected billionaire businessman Elon Musk's offer to buy the company. Musk had made a $43 billion all-cash offer to Twitter chairman Bret Taylor to buy off the influential platform.
The Saudi prince is one of the largest and long-term shareholders of Twitter. He took to his own Twitter account to state that he "reject the offer." He wrote: "I don't believe that the proposed offer by Elon Musk comes close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects."
Musk reacted to Talal's rejection by asking how much of Twitter does the Kingdom own, directly and indirectly? He also questioned what are the Kingdom's views on journalistic freedom of speech. He also tweeted that the price's rejection is "interesting."
CEO of Tesla Motors made the offer to buy Twitter pointing out the platform's "extraordinary potential". It was recently announced that Musk will be joining Twitter's board of directors. But the decision was quickly overturned for unknown reasons. He expressed interest in buying off the platform saying he will "unlock" its potential.
The entrepreneur owns 9.2% of the company's shares. He argued that the company needs to be transformed into a private one and he will reconsider his position as a shareholder if his offer is rejected. Musk has declared that his interest in buying Twitter is to promote free speech. However, he hasn't talked in detail about what he will change about the platform in order to achieve that.
The entrepreneur is known for frequently carrying out spats on Twitter and ending up on memes. Some have called Musk out on his own anti-free speech actions when his employees spoke against him.
Twitter is known for being accommodating to its employees and Musk's apparent interest in the firm has caused worry considering his history with employees. Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has assured employees that Elon's offer will not hold Twitter hostage.