Yahoo to acquire West Asia online community website

In an announcement today, it said the internet users in the region will benefit from the combination of Yahoo!’s products and services with Maktoob’s local content, which today reaches more than 16.5 million unique users throughout the Arab world.

“This acquisition will accelerate Yahoo!’s strategy of expanding in high-growth emerging markets where we believe Yahoo! has unparallelled opportunity to become the destination of choice for consumers," said Yahoo! chief executive officer Carol Bartz.

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. Yahoo! and Maktoob are natural partners and this combination should help energise the Internet market in the region as a whole.

“We are excited about Yahoo! building a stronger presence in the Middle East and bringing their compelling suite of services to Arab users in Arabic," said Samih Toukan, Founder of Maktoob.

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