Emap shelves plans to sell oldest Middle East service

The owner of AMEinfo.com, the Middle East's oldest business website, has dropped plans to sell the portal despite receiving several "multimillion-dollar" offers. Emap Middle East, which acquired AMEinfo.com for US$29 million (Dh106.5m) in 2006, says it will pump extra funding into the advertising-driven site as it looks to introduce paid-for services to boost revenue.

Emap said in March it was reviewing options for AMEinfo, including a sale. Despite interest from several parties, the company has decided against selling the portal, said Lara Boro, the chief executive of Emap. "We have now completed that strategic review and decided to keep AMEinfo. We will be investing in it and growing it," Ms Boro said. "We received a few multimillion-dollar offers for the business but we didn't see any evidence of ambitious, compelling plans. We have an investment plan in place."

The companies that bid for AMEinfo would have been bound by non-disclosure agreements, so the offers cited by Ms Boro could not be confirmed by The National. A "serious investment" would be made in AMEinfo, including "product development … more technology, and more resources on the commercial side", she said. "We're strengthening our Arabic focus and have some new editorial staff coming on board. I think there are opportunities within the wider MENA market."

On announcing the review in March, Ms Boro said the advertising-driven AMEinfo did not fit with Emap's subscription-based model, which includes the paid-for business publication MEED. "It's all about future-looking, high-value information, and AMEinfo doesn't fit into that model. It's an advertising-driven, volume game," she said at the time. Now that Emap has decided to retain AMEinfo, Ms Boro says the portal's advertising orientation is still "a very good model".