It’s official. Yahoo! has acquired Matkoob.com. For those who do not know what Maktoob is, well, it’s the largest online Arab community. The announcement was made on Tuesday during the press conference at the Fairmont Hotel in Dubai by the Maktoob group and the Yahoo! Emerging Markets team. The financial part of the deal was not disclosed. It was made clear that only the Maktoob.com portal including the Maktoob Research, Bentelhalal, and many others. Some of the other companies like Soug.com, CashU, Tahadi, Araby and the new E-marketing MENA are not included in the deal and will take on a new name Jabbar Internet Group (JIG).

This new acquisition is a very beneficial one for Yahoo because it can now serve a larger percentage of Arab users. At the moment, Yahoo! has 20 million users in the region, so what more when it already has full access to Maktoob’s facilities?

Yahoo’s initial plan is to launch Arabic versions of various Yahoo! services like Mail, Messenger, Search, and homepage. News, Sports, and Finance will just follow in the succeeding time.

Maktoob’s co-founder Samih Toukan is very happy about the deal saying that Yahoo! will only improve the Jordan-based online community further than before. When asked what prompted them to sell Maktoob, this was his reply, “Maktoob has grown today into a leading position in the Arab world. We have a reach of more than 15 million unique users. It is the most well-known brand in the internet industry in the region... Yahoo! was one of the pioneers of the internet industry in the World and Maktoob was one of the pioneers of the Internet in this region. We think a combination of Yahoo! and Maktoob would be a great partnership that will energise the industry as a whole going forward.”

For those who live in the Middle Eastern region, we want to know how you view this deal between Yahoo! and Maktoob. Do you see it as something beneficial for you?