Elon Musk’s Twitter investors include Saudi Prince, Jack Dorsey and Qatar

By Andrew Pollack | Bloomberg

Elon Musk bought Twitter Inc. last week for $44 billion with the help of Wall Street bank loans and shareholders who agreed to roll over their interest in the social media service in exchange for a stake of the new private company.

That means Twitter, whose shares were delisted last week after almost a decade as a public company, has a new lineup of top investors.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal

Regulatory filings show the Saudi prince moved almost 35 million Twitter shares through the Kingdom Holding Co., worth about $1.9 billion at the $54.20 per share sale price. That made him the “second-largest investor” in the new parent company.

Alwaleed was quick to endorse Musk’s plan to acquire Twitter, saying in May that Musk would be “an excellent leader” for the social media company.

Jack Dorsey

Twitter’s co-founder and former chief executive officer rolled over just more than 18 million shares, or about 2.4% of the public company, worth about $978 million at the merger price. That gave him shares of Musk’s X Holdings I Inc., which controls Twitter.

After Musk first agreed to buy Twitter in April, Dorsey lamented that the company was “owned” by Wall Street and said that taking it private was the “correct” first step.

Qatar Investment Authority

A subsidiary of the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar contributed $375 million in exchange for shares of Musk’s holding company.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates the value of the stakes rolled over from Twitter stock declined by about 40% since Musk made his offer in April, based on a drop in an index of social-media company shares.

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