Saudi Prince Buys AOL and Priceline

Yahoo ^ | 3/11/02 | Reuters

[Clara Lou]

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed has bought more than $1 billion worth of shares in Citigroup, AOL Time Warner and Priceline.com over the past six months, his company said on Monday.
The prince, among the world's wealthiest men, bought $500 million in Citigroup, $450 million in AOL Time Warner and $100 million in Priceline.com. With around $10 billion in Citigroup, Alwaleed was already the biggest shareholder in the bank.
"At about $43, Citi's share price was at too attractive a price," the prince said in a statement issued by his company Kingdom Holdings.
The statement said the prince also found AOL Time Warner price attractive at $23 a share.
"I believe in the power of the AOL brand and I am already a shareholder in this global media giant. Therefore when the price reached a lucrative level, we decided to increase our stake," the prince said, without giving exact figures on his AOL holdings.
He also described Priceline.com as one of the few Internet companies that "survived the turbulence witnessed by the Internet arena."
His holdings in Internet commerce company Priceline.com currently stand at 5.4 percent, he added.
Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, has a personal fortune estimated at $20 billion, the bulk of which is invested in the United States.

[Clara Lou]

...another reason to avoid AOL and anything it's involved with.

[Redcloak]

If he were to gain a controlling interest in AOL/Time Warner, wouldn't that make this Saudi one of the largest distributors of pornography in the world?

[CatoRenasci]

Well, time to ween my kids off AOL - which they've had to have because that's how all their friends surf the web -- hope Trillian IM starts working for them....

[Shermy]

But... but... I thought the "jews" control the media.

.

This is the same guy who Rudy G. dissed over the $10 million. The Sheikh said we should "reexamine" the "root causes" of why 9/11 happened. A deflection that his House of Saud had much to do with it. Then he complained about the backlash, blaming, for one Jews in the media. Funny, he owns a big chunk of it. And he's buying more. Here's a related link:

Saudi Prince To Double Stake in AOL (old news, new significance)[11/18/01]

[FreedominJesusChrist]

AOL is the internet for those who have no clue what they are doing online. It's internet for the internet impaired.

[kemathen7]

Not necessarily ... I got a free year of AOL, then cancelled. Why not? It was a free ISP for a year. Doesn't mean I am internet impaired ...

[DoctorMichael]

...........has a personal fortune estimated at $20 billion, the bulk of which is invested in the United States.............

Pragmatically: Hell, he's gotta do SOMETHING with all those Petrodollars.

However, (Nationalistically) I'm still NOT pleased.

[MountainPete]

...another reason to avoid AOL and anything it's involved with.

You got that right! Now, if I can just ween my wife and her brothers from AOL IM and get them to use, well, perhaps, MSN IM . . .

[Harrison Bergeron]

You don't need to be an AOL subscriber to use AOL IM. We have it (program is called AIM) on our computer and fire it up once or twice a week to chat with family. As for whether it's safe and secure, the answer is "probly not, but no more so than competitors ICQ and Trillian. Trick is to practice safe firewall and never leave a chat program up when you're not using it.

[b4its2late]

A little loose cash laying around the palace no doubt.......

[Savage Beast]

He might improve Time Warner. It certainly couldn't get any worse.

[TwoStep]

**Ping**

[LetsRok]

Anything to prop up my AOL shares bought at $38.00 last year until I can sell.

[Hank Rearden]

Bill Gates has been hard-working and productive, creating many jobs and much wealth, to get as rich as he is. This Moo is useless - a parasite in a dress.

And AOL is welded-on training wheels.

Rant concludes here. For now.

[FreedominJesusChrist]

Not necessarily...but most of the time. Even from a casual glance at their commercials, one can tell that it is an internet service geared for the internet impaired.

[TADSLOS]

Expect another terror attack affecting the markets within days after he sells.

[RickyJ]

Bill Gates has been hard-working and productive, creating many jobs and much wealth, to get as rich as he is.

Microsoft has been found guilty already of using its monopoly in operatnig systems to eliminate the competition. If you want to call breaking the laws "hard working" then you're on the wrong forum.

[Clara Lou]

Microsoft has been found guilty
Pardon me if I say "Big deal!" I'm not so sure what Microsoft got was justice.

[Savage Beast]

Well I hope you sell high, but AOL Time-Warner is about as disgusting as it can get.