Anghami, one of the dominant music streaming services in the Middle East, could soon be under new ownership (or co-ownership).
Sources close to the situation say the firm’s top brass are currently assessing their options – including a potential sale to Dubai-based pay TV network Orbit Showtime Network.
That’s according to Bloomberg, which reports that Anghami could be valued at as much as $400m if a deal goes ahead and if certain conditions are met.
Bloomberg further reports that Anghami’s owners are also considering an alternative strategy: hiring JP Morgan Chase to raise capital for future expansion.
Founded in 2013, Anghami last year inked a deal with Orbit Showtime Network’s Wavo – an agreement which included the streaming rights to the final series of HBO’s Game Of Thrones; the ‘Wavo Powered By Anghami’ service launched for just $1.99 per month.
Beirut-based Anghami’s music streaming rivals in the Middle East include Deezer, which raised over $180m in August 2018 from investors that included Rotana Group.
Subsequent to that deal, Deezer confirmed that the catalog of local label Rotana Records would be exclusively available on its service in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Deezer officially launched in MENA in October 2018; Spotify followed a month later.
Speaking to MBW in March last year, Anghami co-founder, Elie Habib (pictured), confirmed that “significant number [of users] over 1m are paying [to subscribe] to Anghami”.
He also confirmed that Anghami had over 21 million active monthly users, and differentiated itself from rivals in MENA via 28 partnerships with local mobile operators, as well as boasting over 300,000 licensed music videos on its platform.
He added: “YouTube is by far a more important competitor [for Anghami] than Spotify or Deezer [in MENA]; understanding that means that video isn’t a second class citizen for us.”Music Business Worldwide
