DUBAI: Tech giant Amazon expanded its global reach on Tuesday with the announcement of a deal to buy Dubai-based Souq.com, the Middle East’s largest online retailer.

It appears competition was fierce to acquire Souq.com, with the Amazon deal announced just a day after Dubai-based Emaar Malls confirmed offering $800 million to acquire the site. Amazon had walked away from talks with Souq.com earlier this year, but it reportedly came back with an offer of $650 million.

Founded in 2005 as an auction site, Souq.com has evolved into a retailer and a marketplace for third-party sellers. Souq.com attracts over 45 million visits per month.

Souq.com chief executive and co-founder Ronaldo Mouchawar called the agreement “a critical next step in growing our e-commerce presence on behalf of customers across the region.”

Souq.com won a major vote of confidence last year and emerged as the highest-valued internet company in the region when it secured $275m in funding from international investors to support its growth. Known for its huge online retail operations, Amazon has been expanding into areas including cloud computing and streaming video where it is trying to rival Netflix. But online shopping remains at its core, with its retail operations taking in $26bn in North America and $14bn in the rest of the world in the last quarter of 2016.

Samih Toukan, the head of Jabbar Internet Group, an early investor in Souq, hailed the deal on Twitter, writing: “History is made”. He described the acquisition as the “biggest regional tech deal” since Yahoo! in 2009 purchased Maktoob, the first provider of Arabic email services.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2017