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Business News Deals Digital
Anghami to list on Nasdaq via merger with special purpose acquisition company
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 4 March 2021
Middle Eastern streaming service Anghami is set to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York via a merger with a so called special purpose acquisition company. The streaming firm’s founders say that the arrangement will allow them to fast-track future growth.
Fact fans will be keen to know that the specific special purpose acquisition company is the Vistas Media Acquisition Company, which listed itself on Nasdaq last August with the stated intent of acquiring businesses in “the global media and entertainment sector”.
Originally founded in Beirut in 2012 and now formally based in Abu Dhabi, Anghami has been seeking to grab a share of the emerging digital music market in the Middle East and North Africa, competing with the global players partly by getting to those markets quicker and partly by having a strong focus on local repertoire. It claims to now have over 70 million subscribers.
Confirming the deal with Vistas Media and the resulting Nasdaq listing, Anghami co-founder and CEO Eddy Maroun said yesterday: “Today is a very exciting day for all of us at Anghami and our partners globally. Elie [Habib] and I co-founded the company in 2012 with a vision for Anghami to be a first of its kind, digital media entertainment technology platform in the Middle East and North Africa region”.
“Today, we have taken a significant step forward in our growth plans in seeking to become the region’s first Arab technology company to list on Nasdaq”, he went on. “Being a US listed public company gives us access to growth capital and a global platform that is the best in the world”.
Meanwhile, the there mentioned Elie Habib, who is also the firm’s CTO, added: “We’re proud of the product and technology we’ve been able to build and now we will have the ability to invest more in research and development and innovation, providing a product that goes beyond music to immersive experiences around media and entertainment while remaining relevant to our users and focused on our local edge”.
