Saudi Prince Is Twitter's Second Biggest Shareholder

It is the Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal who owns more than 5 percent of Twitter's shares, after he doubled his stake. The share works out to about $1 billion, according to CNET.

In 2011, he got a 3 percent stake, from which he spent $50 million in order to expand his share to his 5 percent as of now. Currently, he owns 35 million shares, if we include the shares of his investment arm, Kingdom Holding Company. Hence, the total holding makes him "Twitter's second-biggest shareholder behind co-founder Ev Williams, and ahead of CEO Jack Dorsey".

Many commentators view this expansion as "an endorsement of new Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey". However, in June he made some comments on Dorsey, that do not really make this too certain, according to Quartz.

Furthermore, it is not just Alwaleed who has voiced concerns over Dorsey because he was part of his other company, Square. "Jack has another company called Square which requires a lot of attention and a full-time job round there," said Alwaleed. "I believe and trust that Jack Dorsey is there on a temporary basis."

However, Alwaleed is not too involved in using the social media platform. He had only 171 tweets since he started the account in 2013, according to Forbes.

Other companies in which he owns shares include Citigroup, News Corp and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.