Yahoo! is set to acquire Arabic web portal Maktoob for a reported USD80m in what Yahoo! calls its ?biggest geographic expansion in years?. The firm says it plans to introduce Arabic versions of Yahoo! Mail, Messenger and its homepage, and eventually release local versions of its news, sports and finance sites.
Maktoob was founded in 2000 as a free Arabic-language email service and has since expanded to include payments, gaming, search and auctions. ?We see great growth potential in both audience and advertising in the Arab world and combining with Maktoob.com will allow us to quickly build our presence there with high quality products," says Yahoo!. "This is a big win for publishers, advertisers, and consumers in the region.?
Maktoob will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Yahoo! with current general manager Ahmed Nassaf continuing to lead the company. A number of Maktoob’s products, including souq.com, cashu.com and araby.com, are not part of the deal. They will become a separate company called Jabbar Internet Group. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2009.
StrategyEye's related categories: Social Networks - Consumer
StrategyEye's related companies: Maktoob Group, Yahoo!
