Update: This is now confirmed.
Breaking news from the other side of the world: Yahoo may well have acquired Maktoob, a leading Arab internet portal that encompasses a variety of services including search, Email, social network, and more. As reported on Arabcrunch (which is unaffiliated with TechCrunch), a press conference announcing the deal appears to be imminent.
We’re still working to confirm the news, but there are indications that the acquisition will be officially announced within minutes. A Twitter account called MaktoobBusiness, which we believe to be affiliated with the company, is currently tweeting about a Yahoo press conference, where founders and the GM of Maktoob are attending alongside Yahoo’s emerging market team. Rumors of a deal between Yahoo and Maktoob have been swirling for many months, but details have remained scant. Arabcrunch reports that the acquisition price exceeds $100 million — we are working to confirm these details.
Maktoob launched in the late 90’s as the first free Arabic Email service provider. Since then it has grown to encompass a variety of services, including payments, gaming, search, and auctions. According to comScore, Maktoob has seen very impressive growth over the last year, growing from 6 million unique visitors in June 2008 to 21.8 million a year later. Likewise, its page views have grown from 406 million to 1.1 billion over the same time frame.
Rumor is they acquired it for $100M range
Is it right??? are just a rumor???
i really wish blogs could think up their own unique names.
LOL
hmm, like who?
and btw ArabCrunch is written with “C” capital appreciate the fix 
Their twitter account : Nassef on stage. Big news. Announcement made. Yahoo buying maktoob. Official.
Announcement is taking place now in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. We’re mashing up tweets and news from the press conference on our Netvibes page
http://www.netv...es.com/spotonpr
It is true, and a press conference is being held in Dubai to announce it officially, you can see all related coverage on UAE twitter lens: http://uaetweets.com/#yahoo
they just announced Maktoob as Yahoo!MiddleEast
http://twitter.com/tariqha
Its officially announced now in the Yahoo & Maktoob conference.
Maktoob become the Yahoo Middle East.
Yahoo!’s acquisition of Maktoob.com is probably the biggest Internet portal move in the Middle East by a global player since Microsoft launched its MSN franchise in the Arab world together with Egypt’s LinkdotNet and Orascom as MSNArabia in 2001. Arguably this is bigger, due to Maktoob’s market position, the capital involved and the weight of the commitment from Yahoo.
Middle East & North Africa web developer ocommunities are obviously going to be buzzing with this news for sometime to come. However, there is also hope among Arab entrepreneurs that this acquisition will confirm to big Middle East investors that Arab web ventures can succeed internationally and that the returns can be exciting.
Thats great. finally Maktoob have got Yahoo middle east.:-)
Its officially announced now in the Yahoo & Maktoob conference.
Maktoob become the Yahoo Middle East.