Yahoo! Acquired maktoob.com one of the largest communities and a leading online media company Arab world, for undisclosed amount.  The deal includes the online community Maktoob.com and Maktoob Research.

The Banner on Maktoob.com homepage linking to maktoob.yahoo.com

•    The company was founded in 1999 by Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury and was incorporated in 2000.
•    Maktoob claims it has 16 million unique visitors per month; it reaches 74% of Internet users in Saudi Arabia and UAE, 64% of users in Jordan and 35% of users in Egypt.

Keith Nilsson, Senior Vice President, Emerging Markets, told Maktoob Business:” Yahoo! is acquiring Maktoob because it accelerates our market entry efforts into the Arab region”.

Yahoo! Plans to localize the mail, instant messenger and home page.

Following the acquisition, Maktoob.com will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo! Ahmed Nassef, the current general manager of Maktoob.com, will continue to lead the Maktoob.com teams and will report to Keith Nilsson. It is expected that the transaction will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Upon completion of the deal, the remaining Maktoob Group companies – including Souq.com, cashU.com, Araby.com, and Tahadi.com – will operate under a new entity called the Jabbar Internet Group, managed by Samih Toukan. Yahoo! and the Jabbar Internet Group will continue to have a strong commercial relationship going forward, which will include the promotion of Jabbar companies on the Maktoob.com portal.

How this acquisiton will affect online advertising in the region and Arabic SEO? What do you think abou the deal?