According to various reports this morning, Yahoo has agreed to purchase, the arab community site Maktoob.com, which has 16.5 million users in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Yahoo said, while there are more than 320 million Arabic speakers worldwide, less than 1% of online content is in Arabic. Online advertising is growing sharply in the region, and ad spending is expected to grow 35% to 40% in the Middle East this year.
“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! CEO Carol Bartz.
Yahoo! said the acquisition would allow it to offer Arabic versions of Yahoo! Messenger e-mail services.
The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter and reports say the purhcase price was between $75 Million and $85 Million dollars.
Now watch as Yahoo runs it into the ground.
I saw yesterday that they run ads for PPC targeting the Overture brand they no longer push, yet they yanked the Overture tool a long time ago, of which would have been a great doorway page for advertisers to open up an account.
I’m convinced they will never get back on their feet.
UPDATE
Another take on this acquisition:
http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2009/08/25/yahoos-arabian-bet.aspx
Personally, I’d like to see Yahoo succeed. Moving into a largely under-developed market with good growth potential is a smart move. The internet has something for everyone. One thing about Yahoo I have always liked is they are providers of content