According to al-Okaz –a Saudi Arabian daily newspaper– the Saudi Prince Mohammad Bin Salman ,the deputy crown prince and the youngest minister of defense in the world, offered to procure the world’s largest social network for nearly twice as much its current valuation. Market analysts believe the Saudi motivation is to stifle the rising tide of pro-democracy demonstrations in the oil-rich kingdom.
“His Royal Highness Prince Mohammad Bin Salman met with Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday to express his Majesty King Salman’s displeasure with Facebook Corporation for having allowed outlawed groups to organize their criminal activities,” Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported as the flamboyant prince visits Washington, D.C.
In the meantime, the controversial New York-based investment Morgan Stanley Inc. , which made a US $11.5-billion investment in Facebook last March on behalf of both itself and its non-U.S. clients, made a cogent presentation to the Saudi monarch in which it expressed firm’s readiness to assist the Saudi regime to put an immediate end to the increasing pro-democracy protests.
Wael Ghonim, the Google Inc. marketing executive in Egypt who organized 2011 pro-democracy protests –via Facebook– in that country which overthrew the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak , vehemently condemned the Saudi offer.
“In what is being termed as pure Wall street Gordon Gecko tactics, King Salman of Saudi Arabia has decided to make an offer of $250 billion to buy out Facebook. My inside sources within the kingdom suggest that he is very upset with Mr. Zukerberg for allowing the pro-democracy uprising to get out of control. In a personal meeting between Mark Zuckerberg and Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, Zuckerberg had allegedly promised that he would not allow any revolt pages to be formed on Facebook,” Wael Ghonim told Middle East News Agency (MENA).
