Amazon Confirms It Won The Battle To Acquire Souq.com

Online retailer giant Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN confirmed early Tuesday morning its expansion into the Middle East through an acquisition of Souq.com, a Dubai-based e-commerce leader. A Bloomberg report noted that Amazon was bidding against Emaar Malls PJSC, the operator of the world's biggest shopping mall, which bid as much as $800 million.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed by Amazon.

Souq.com was valued at $1 billion in prior rounds of financing, the Bloomberg report stated. The company raised $275 million in February 2016, which also gave it the title of the Middle East's most valuable internet company.

"Amazon and Souq.com share the same DNA — we're both driven by customers, invention and long-term thinking," said Russ Grandinetti, senior vice president at Amazon, in a statement.

Amazon Once Passed

Amazon was eyeing an acquisition of Souq.com since at least November 2016, but a Bloomberg report in January of 2017 stated that Amazon walked away from talks. Amazon was believed to have resumed talks in March and was willing to pay $650 million.

Amazon's acquisition is expected to close at some point this year and marks the company's largest acquisition in years, although the exact price tag remains unknown. Other notable acquisitions in recent years include the $970 million acquisition of Twitch in 2014.

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The Customer Is Always Right: This ETF Is Tailored To Customer Satisfaction _________ Image Credit: By Souq.com (Souq.com) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons