Maktoob is not a portal, it's a conglomerate; the most real, brick and mortar Web startup you have ever seen. They have enviable and very deep ties with government, academia, NGOs, banks and everything you can imagine. They're humongous.
(they're not part of the deal, but Maktoob also owns Souq and Cashu; middle-eastern equivalent of Ebay and Paypal, imo)
mahmud, you seem to belong to this region or atleast have previous ties with working with people in this region. (I don't know, I'm just guessing based on some of your previous comments), so I guess you are the best person to ask this.
Any news/info about if they are going to invest in expansion and hire more people? And any ideas how I can get plugged in the tech industry here in MiddleEast? I am a relative newbie in this region (previously worked in Bangalore/US for Fortune-10 companies, 7+ yrs work-ex) and even though I love the work here (we are a small shop with a big govt cust), I feel I lack an environment where I can come across other technical people and events and exciting things happening here and keep learninng and upgrading myself. Most of the tech companies (and hence I suppose the happenings) here are concentrated in glitzy Dubai Internet City, far away from my place. I guess I need a meetup with a techie or two and who knows where the network takes you.
Thanks for that info. Actually, I haven't even visited it. Just from what I've heard and considering that most tech. companies are situated there I assumed there must be atleast some dev. going on there. Any ideas where I should look at?
(they're not part of the deal, but Maktoob also owns Souq and Cashu; middle-eastern equivalent of Ebay and Paypal, imo)