Yahoo! Acquires Maktoob.com
The rumors are confirmed, Yahoo! has acquired Maktoob at an estimated 100 million USD, the acquisition comes after nearly two years of negotiations, the deal includes all the properties under Maktoob.com and doesnt include any websites under Maktoob Group according to the press release on Maktoob Business and the post on Arab Crunch which was the 1st website to break the news about the acquisition. Websites under Maktoob group such as Cashu, Souq and Araby will be under a new group called the Jabbar internet group.
This is definitely great news for all Arab internet sctartups which will hopefully lead to more investments from VC’s in this field.
Maktoob users shouldn’t expect any major changes or new product releases before half of the next year besides seeing the Yahoo! brand on front pages and small changes and enhancements.
Maktoob.com, founded in 2000, is among the top 10 internet sites in almost all Arabic-speaking countries, according to U.S.-based research firm Alexa.
“With the combination of the Yahoo and the Maktoob brands … and the breadth of content and services that we have, we expect to be one of the strongest players in the region,” Keith Nilsson, Senior Vice President, Emerging Markets, Yahoo!, told Maktoob Business.
