Saudi prince takes $1bn AOL stake

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, billionaire investor and a nephew of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd , has just forked out $1 billion buying up shares in dotcom and IT companies. The flush billionaire investor, whose previous greatest hits include Apple, has been waiting to pounce on dotcom shares for some time but only weighed in when stock prices went down the pan. The plutocratic prince picked up $400 million each in AOL and Compaq, plus $100 million each in Kodak and Xerox, and his AOL stake now stands at over $1 billion. But just wait until tomorrow morning. Notice, though, how Alwaleed didn't decide to splash out on Lastminute.com shares, which are currently down the toilet. Perhaps he'll wait until they're in the sewer before he wades in. ®