Another announcement that has to do with the shares that we own is that Souq finally sold to Amazon, even though the founder could have extracted more for his efforts. See the announcement on the Souq website - Joining the Amazon family. Ronaldo Mouchawar is an interesting guy, for one he is born in Aleppo, a city that has heartbreaking before and after pictures. He is tall, a former basketball player in his earlier days. He could have accepted a higher offer from another suitor, feeling however that the Amazon offer would do good by the customers.
Is that what they call pure capitalism, or naivety? I am not sure, as shareholders of Amazon, we are glad they have a presence (and a good one) in the Middle East, as shareholders of Naspers (who have a stake in Souq) we are not that pleased that they hadn't managed to squeeze out more. I suppose for Mouchawar, getting a great partner in the form of Amazon may actually reach his goal of improving the lives of all the people in the region, access and speed and quality.
The suggestion is that Amazon paid 650 million Dollars, the other suitor may have paid as much as 800 million Dollars (See this Barron's piece - Amazon Clinches Souk.com (sic?), Snubbing Dubai Bidder). I suppose that all will be revealed in time, Naspers will let the market know what they managed to get out of the ownership of Souq. It is one of the cases when all you "wanted" was a fair price, for the company you own that is the seller and for the company that you own that is the buyer.