Yahoo!'s announcement of acquiring of “Maktoob,” leading online community portal in the Arab world, gives them deep penetration in to the Middle Eastern market - a rapidly growing and desired market. Maktoob reaches one in every three people online throughout the region –- or 16.5 million people. This’ll be Yahoo!’s biggest geographic expansion in years. The acquisition’s scheduled to take place in Q4 at a still undisclose amount. Once Maktoob becomes its property, Yahoo! plan to introduce Arabic versions of Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, Search, and our homepage and then eventually local versions of properties like News, Sports, and Finance. We’ll also focus on creating content and services tailored to the region. No other global company has made this kind of investment in local relevance for the Arab world.

More info: Press Release