Yahoo! Buys Maktoob Research Owner

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Yahoo! has acquired online community Maktoob.com, which owns its own dedicated research practice, Maktoob Research. Terms were not disclosed, although local sources estimate the total purchase price will be around $100m.

Maktoob.com was founded in 2000 by Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury as the world's first free Arabic/English web-based service, and since then has grown to reach one in three people online throughout the Arab world. In 2006, the firm launched its research arm to exploit its online consumer database, of more than 16.5 million unique users in the UAE, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The 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! Messenger and Yahoo! Mail services.

'For our research partners, this partnership will mean unprecedented reach to Arab consumers,' commented Maktoob Research General Manager Tamara Deprez. 'Thanks to Yahoo!'s 20 million users in our region, our consumer panel will now get much bigger, enabling us to garner insights on key consumer segments more quickly and effectively.'

Following the acquisition, Maktoob.com will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo! Its General Manager Ahmed Nassef will continue to lead the Maktoob.com teams, and the remaining Maktoob Group companies will operate under a new entity called the Jabbar Internet Group, managed by Toukan.

Web sites: www.yahoo.com , www.maktoob.com and www.jabbar.com .