"This step is a testament to the amazing decade dubbizle had in this region," said Barry Judge, general manager at dubizzle UAE. "The co-founders also felt that dubizzle is in good hands to move forward to continue its development under OLX Group."
Founded in Dubai 2005, dubizzle allows users advertise goods or services and currently operates in eight countries across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region including Egypt, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.
Founding partners J.C. Butler and Sim Whatley, sold the majority stake to Naspers back in 2013 for $120 million and stepped down from the day to day running of the company to move back to the US. Since then, dubizzle has acquired UAE-based startups Expat Wheels and Wecashanycar as well as Masterkey and Airlist. According to Judge, dubizzle is run independently by the local management team and this latest acquisition will not affect the company's day to day operations "in any way".
In April 2020, Bayut's parent company and the Netherlands-based OLX Group announced the merger of their operations in the UAE, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Pakistan, and Oman, together with the OLX-owned Dubai-based classifieds website, dubizzle.[8][9]
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