Yahoo! To Acquire Maktoob.com, Largest Arabic Portal

Yahoo has announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Maktoob.com, the leading online community in the Arab world. In its press release Yahoo explains its expansion into a new market that it had little presence in prior to the agreement.

“Internet users in the region will benefit from the combination of Yahoo's popular products and services with Maktoob's compelling local content, which today reaches one in three people online throughout the Arab world. This acquisition will extend Yahoo!'s current offerings by adding capabilities to deliver relevant Arabic-language content and services, as well as Arabic versions of Yahoo's popular Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Mail services. Maktoob.com is accessed by users in countries that include UAE, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.”

The Press release went to explain that only about 1% of the online content is written in Arabic, where as there are 320 million Arabic speakers in the world. “While Internet usage in the Middle East has grown more than tenfold since 2000, most markets are still in the early stages of adoption.”

Spending on online advertising is expected to grow by at least 35 percent this year in the region, according to Madar Research.

"Internet users in the Arab world will have access to Yahoo's vast content portfolio, as well as world-class communications products, which will be available in Arabic for the first time. In addition, advertisers will be able to leverage the vast reach of the newly combined audiences to effectively market to consumers across the region," said Ahmed Nassef, general manager of Maktoob.com.

Maktoob.com was founded in 2000 by Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury as the world's first free Arabic/English Web-based email service, and since then has grown to be the leading Arab online community in the region.

“Following the acquisition, Maktoob.com will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo. Ahmed Nassef, the current general manager of Maktoob.com, will continue to lead the Maktoob.com teams and will report to Keith Nilsson, senior vice president, Emerging Markets, Yahoo. It is expected that the transaction will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2009.

“Upon completion of the deal, the remaining Maktoob Group companies - including Souq.com, cashU.com, Araby.com, and Tahadi.com - will operate under a new entity called the Jabbar Internet Group, managed by Samih Toukan. Yahoo! and the Jabbar Internet Group will continue to have a strong commercial relationship going forward, which will include the promotion of Jabbar companies on the Maktoob.com port.”