Venture Africa 23 October 2012
Africa’s largest media business, Naspers, is closing a deal which will see the company own a $40 million stake in Souq.com, a subsidiary of leading consumer e-commerce sector firm in the Arab World, Al Jabbar Internet Group.
Arabian Business reveals that the agreement between the South African-based company and Middle East’s Al Jabbar, is ready to be announced within the next two weeks, making it the largest internet and e-commerce investment made in the Arabian region since the 2009 sale of Maktoob.com, the largest portal in the Arab world; Yahoo! acquired Maktoob for about $165 million, which now functions as the Arab portal of the world’s second largest search engine.
As at the time of this report, Naspers had not commented on the development.
Chairman and CEO of Al Jabbar, Samih Toukan said earlier in the month that his group was in talks with investors seeking to take a stake in the company which owns Souq.com, the largest ecommerce company in the region.
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