North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop and Heritage Foundation Research Fellow Kara Frederick comment on Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter on The Evening Edit.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk clapped back after Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alawaleed bin Talal rejected his offer to buy Twitter for $43 billion.
“I don’t think @elonmusk’s proposed offer ($54.20) comes close to @Twitter’s intrinsic value given its growth prospects,” Alaweed tweeted Thursday. “As one of Twitter’s largest and long-term shareholders, [Kingdom Holding Company] & I decline this offer.”
TWITTER SHAREHOLDERS WIN IN ELON MUSK’S QUEST FOR JUSTICE
Alaweed owns a 4.45% stake in Twitter, while Kingdom Holding, the company he owns, owns 0.72% of the company.
Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during a news conference at SpaceX’s Starbase near the village of Boca Chica in South Texas on February 10, 2022. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
“Interesting,” Musk replied cheekily on Twitter. “Just two questions, if I may. How much of Twitter does the Kingdom own, directly and indirectly? What are the Kingdom’s views on journalistic freedom of expression?”
Saudi Arabia’s law does not provide for freedom of speech or freedom of the press, the U.S. State Department reported in 2018.
“Mass media and all other means of expression should use civil and polite language, contribute to popular education and strengthen unity,” says the Basic Law. “The media are forbidden from committing acts that create disorder and division, that harm the security of the state or its public affairs, or that undermine human dignity and rights.”
In this October 2, 2019 file photo, a Turkish police officer walks past a picture of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi before a ceremony near the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul marking the one-year anniversary of his death. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File/AP Newsroom)
Authorities are responsible for regulating and determining what speech or expression undermines homeland security, and the government can ban or suspend media outlets if it concludes they have violated the Press and Publications Act.
The Biden administration last year declassified a report accusing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of authorizing the operation to capture or assassinate journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
This long exposure image shows a trail of a group of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites soaring over Uruguay on February 7, 2021 from the landscape about 185 km north of Montevideo near Capilla del Sauce, Florida Department. (Photo by MARIANA SUAREZ/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The Justice Department in 2019 indicted two former Twitter employees, accusing them of spying for Saudi Arabia to target critics of the regime. When podcaster Alex Barredo brought this to Musk’s attention, he expressed an interest in the story.
Musk’s actions on Twitter have supported the company’s share price.
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The social media giant’s market value hit $40 billion when it announced its 9.2% stake in the company this month, up from $29.9 billion on Jan. 31, according to Dow Jones Market Data Group , when he first began secretly charging stocks to the investing public.