A hearty mabrouk should go out to the Maktoob team in light of their acquisition by internet pioneers Yahoo. As my colleague Tom Gara mentions in his online story for The National:
"Yahoo has made the most significant push into the Arab world of any
major internet company, acquiring Maktoob, the region's most popular
web portal. The deal is the first large-scale foreign acquisition of a Middle Eastern website."
Indeed, the local and international press have been following today's announcement with gusto. "Maktoob" even made Twitter's top trending topics today. Anyways, it's always nice to see some positive technology news hit the Middle East, especially a high-profile acquisition in the middle of the worst recession since the 1930's.
A preview of the new
Maktoob-Yahoo site can be found here
, while the
Techmeme stream can be found here
and a selection of what the web is saying about Maktoob is after the jump.
From renowned technology blog
Techcrunch
:
Up until now, Yahoo has held a weak presence in the Arab region, with
no dedicated portal to speak of (though it still managed to attract
millions of Arab users to its sites). The deal effectively gives Yahoo
an instant foothold in the market. According to MaktoobBusiness,
products will be cobranded with Yahoo and Maktoob, with the deal
completing in the fourth quarter and new products rolling out next year.
From social media-centric blog
Mashable
:
This is not just an acquisition of another web portal; it's Yahoo
moving into a completely different and new market, which means
translating Yahoo's services into Arabic. From the official Yahoo
corporate blog:
From our friends at
Startup Arabia
:
This is the first time in the history of the internet in the Arab
world that such a deal has taken place, and promises to take the
internet industry in the region to a whole new level; hopefully in
terms of quality, content, competition, awareness and investment
opportunities.
Paid Content chimes in with their thoughts, adding that sources told the blog that the deal was worth between US$75 million to $80 million:
A very important concern that will come up with this acquisition by
a global company like Yahoo: concerns over freedom of speech in a
region known for censorship of free speech online. Yahoo will be
closely watched on how it reacts to such concerns and requests by local
governments from here on. Its China policy has come under fierce
criticism over the years.
Keith Nilsson, Yahoo's senior vice president for emerging markets, writes on the official Yahoo blog:
This deal is part of Yahoo!'s broader strategy to grow our
international business, particularly in emerging markets. In many
countries, vast populations -- and advertisers -- are just starting to
come online. The potential is tremendous. Yahoo! has a large and
growing audience in these markets today, and our acquisition of Maktoob
represents the kind of investment we're making to cater to the needs of
these promising regions.
And finally, the official press release from Yahoo can be found here. A selection is below:
"This acquisition will accelerate Yahoo!'s strategy of expanding in
high-growth emerging markets where we believe Yahoo! has unparalleled
opportunity to become the destination of choice for consumers," said
Yahoo! chief executive officer Carol Bartz. "Access to information and
communications tools can positively impact people's lives in many ways,
and with the acquisition of Maktoob.com and our investment in the
region, the Arab world will soon get a Yahoo! experience in Arabic with
relevant local language content, programming and services."
