From 200 to 50 to 0 staff: Yahoo to shut shop in Dubai

Yahoo Middle East is all set to close its Dubai office in April 2016 and its remaining 50-odd employees have been asked to look for other jobs.

An official statement by Yahoo said employees have been informed about the April deadline for closure and the decision has been made as part of the company's efforts to streamline the business.

The news comes amidst mounting pressure on its global CEO Merissa Myers to quit as Yahoo continues to lose ground to Google and Facebook.

“Today we informed our Dubai-based employees that we’ve made the difficult decision to close the office by the end of April as a part of Yahoo’s effort to streamline our business and set the company up for long-term growth. We are incredibly grateful for our employees’ hard work and contributions,” the statement said.

Nobody from the company was available to provide additional info about the announcement. Calls to the company's office at Dubai Media City went unanswered.

However, according to sources, the decision to close down its office in Dubai has been made as the company failed to make any major headway in terms of return on investments over the past years.

It entered the region in 2009, following the acquisition of Maktoub.com for an undisclosed amount. Although initial reports put the sum at around $80 million, other reports said the investments were close to around $165 million.

At the time of acquisition, Maktoob had a reader base of about 16.5 million in the region.

"This deal is part of Yahoo!’s broader strategy to grow our international business, particularly in emerging markets…." it had then said.

The company went on an aggressive expansion and hired several hundred employees apart from expanding into other regional markets.

"At the peak of our activities, we had about 200 employees working at the Dubai office," said one former employee.

The company however said it does not plan to fully abandon its activities in the region.

"We will continue to provide our suite of consumer services in Arabic and English and our advertising inventory through Yahoo marketplaces and other advertising exchanges," the statement said.

Yahoo had earlier closed down its offices in Amman and Cairo.