improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . may 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message this article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral . please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable independent third party sources . may 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message this article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in arabic . july 2012 click show for important translation instructions . view a machine translated version of the arabic article . google s machine translation is a useful starting point for translations but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate rather than simply copy pasting machine translated text into the english wikipedia . do not translate text that appears unreliable or low quality . if possible verify the text with references provided in the foreign language article . after translating translated ar must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance . for more guidance see wikipedia translation . yahoo maktoob type private industry internet services founded 1998 headquarters dubai united arab emirates key people ahmed nassef md vp yahoo middle east products maktoob maktoob owned sites and services website maktoob.com maktoob inc. arabic is an arab internet services company founded in amman jordan known for being the first arabic english email service provider . maktoob in arabic means letter written or destiny . on 25 august 2009 yahoo inc. announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire maktoob.com 1 thus turning maktoob into yahoo s official arm in the mena region . eventually maktoob was sold to yahoo . contents 1 history 2 abraaj capital acquisition 3 yahoo 4 maktoob owned sites and services 5 references 6 external links history edit maktoob was founded in 1998 by samih toukan and hussam khoury who were able to introduce a webmail service with arabic support for emails when no other free email service had such support . they also helped users who did not have arabic keyboard or browsers that support arabic to send and receive emails by using a virtual keyboard which was done in java and using java applets that had better arabic support . the initial flourish of maktoob and its large user base led the company to create several services and content channels for arab users many of which were not found previously in arabic format . chatting greeting cards and simple content channels were upon the first to be developed internally . since then maktoob diversified its services through both acquisitions and internal development to have close to 40 different channels and services . the success of the maktoob portal drove the company to start new online businesses . cashu was founded to address the issue of electronic payments in the region souq.com as an auctions and marketplace ; www.tahadi.com was founded to provide the best mmo mmorpg games for the middle east internet users araby.com an arabic search engine ; maktoob research an online research service founded by tamara deprez and sukar.com the first and biggest online private shopping club in the middle east founded by saygin yalcin . abraaj capital acquisition edit in june 2005 the uae based private equity house abraaj capital purchased 40 % of the company shares in a usd 5.2 million buyout deal . the rationale for such an acquisition according to abraaj s website is that maktoob has a large user base claimed to be more than 4 million and according to marketing literature a dominant online payment option cashu and a strong brand name . it has established the first arab online auction site souq.com which will benefit from leveraging the large community network . in december 2007 abraaj sold its share to tiger global management with an internal rate of return of 75 % . 2 yahoo edit in 2009 maktoob was sold to yahoo for 164 million . 3 maktoob owned sites and services edit yahoo maktoob sport the first arabic sport site 4 yahoo maktoob blog arabic blog service 5 yahoo maktoob as7ab maktoob the first arabic social networking service 6 yahoo maktoob news news service 7 yahoo maktoob research the arab world s largest online marketing research business 8 yahoo maktoob bentelhalal marriage portal 9 yahoo maktoob travel arabic community travel portal 10 yahoo maktoob games casual gaming with arabic support 11 references edit shareholder.com albawaba.com jeffrey ghannam 3 february 2011 . social media in the arab world leading up to the uprisings of 2011 pdf . the center for international media assistance . retrieved 25 september 2013 . news albawaba 2006 04 24 . maktoob.com picks up majority stake in popular arab sports website . retrieved 06 09 2012 . check date values in access date help maktoobblog.com as7ab.maktoob.com business.maktoob.com maktoob research.com bentelhalal.com travel.maktoob.com games.maktoob.com external links edit maktoob ceo interview syria s tech startups find a refuge in jordan 29 april 2013 businessweek v t e yahoo advertising apt from yahoo brightroll flurry panama right media search marketing development developer network boss query language ui library web portal and search engine auctions japan hong kong taiwan autos celebrity finance health homes local movies music news search shine shopping sports time capsule travel tv wallet communication answers groups mail rivals publishing flickr geocities japan only polyvore tumblr software messenger versions toolbar co branded isps at & t bt frontier rogers international yahoo7 yahoo japan yahoo maktoob discontinued or sold 360 altavista axis babel fish briefcase blo.gs broadcast.com buzz yahoo china delicious dialpad fire eagle foxytunes gallery games geocities outside of japan go mobile yahoo indonesia jobs jumpcut kelkoo kickstart yahoo korea live meme maps mash music jukebox music radio music unlimited mybloglog next pipes photos yahoo philippines podcasts publisher network rocketmail screen searchmonkey site explorer the all seeing eye upcoming voice voices webring widgets corporate acquisitions criticism history timeline people marissa mayer jerry yang david filo maynard webb sue james max levchin peter liguori thomas j. mcinerney retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title maktoob & oldid 734816680 categories 1998 establishments in jordancompanies established in 1998computer companies of jordanarabic language websitesinternet service providersinternet search enginesyahoo internationalcompanies based in dubaiyahoo acquisitionshidden categories cs1 errors datesarticles needing additional references from may 2014all articles needing additional referencesarticles lacking reliable references from may 2014all articles lacking reliable referencesarticles to be expanded from july 2012all articles to be expandedarticles needing translation from arabic wikipediapages using infobox company with unsupported parametersarticles containing arabic language text navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 16 august 2016 at 22 11 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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