Saudi Arabia set to block Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, Musk queries Kingdom views on journalistic freedom of speech

Saudi Arabia’s investment vehicle, Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), has rejected the Twitter takeover offer from the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, days after the largest shareholder, Vanguard Group, increased holdings.

The chairman of KHC, Alwaheed Talal, on Thursday, released a statement on Twitter, stating that Musk’s proposed offer doesn’t reflect the true market value of the microblogging site.

It was gathered that Musk offered $54.20 per share as a takeover offer, which brings his bid value above $40 billion, however, this fall short of Twitter’s 52 weeks high of $73.34 per share, but 73.1% above the 52 weeks low of $31.30 – Twitter closed Thursday’s trade with $45.08.

Kingdom Holding is one of the major shareholders in Twitter, with 5.2% stake in its name, which makes its rejection position a blow to Musk’s ambition to solely own the social media platform.

“I don’t believe that the proposed offer by @elonmusk ($54.20) comes close to the intrinsic value of @Twitter given its growth prospects.

“Being one of the largest & long-term shareholders of Twitter, @Kingdom_KHC & I reject this offer.” Talal wrote.

However, Musk didn’t take his comment lightly, questioning the role of the Saudi Arabian firm in Twitter.

Musk tweeted, “Interesting. Just two questions, if I may. How much of Twitter does the Kingdom own, directly & indirectly? What are the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom of speech?” – Talal didn’t respond.

Talal’s dig at the billionaire comes at a period another institutional investor, Vanguard Group, increased its stake in Twitter to 10.3% from 8.4%, to become the largest shareholder, surpassing Musk’s 9.1% stake.

Vanguard Group is known to support the board decision, which currently doesn’t favour Musk‘s takeover plan – this put the Tesla owner in a position to sell his 73.1 million shares in Twitter, as he has threatened to do so if the board rejects his buyout offer.