Kingdom denies offering $150bn to buy Facebook
JEDDAH: A Saudi official denied on Monday that the Kingdom had offered to give SR562.5 billion ($150 billion) to purchase Facebook.
The official, who requested anonymity, said the Kingdom had not made any offer to Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the famous social media.
“The report is totally baseless,” the official told the German news agency, DPA.
The report claimed that Saudi Arabia offered huge amounts to purchase Facebook because of its huge role in anti-government protests in Tunisia and Egypt.
It said the Kingdom is very upset with Zuckerberg for allowing the revolt to get out of control.
According to latest statistics provided by a specialized company, 2.3 million Saudis use Facebook, about eight percent of the Kingdom’s population. In Egypt their number has reached 3.4 million, while in Libya more than 150,000 use Facebook, Bahrain 220,000, Oman 160,000 and Tunisia 1.6 million.
Wael Ghonim, Google’s head of marketing in the Middle East, had played a big role in Egyptian anti-government protests by connecting people and organizing demonstrations through social media.