Abu Dhabi media zone to close up to 10 new deals

Twofour54 ibtikar, the investment arm of Abu Dhabi’s state-backed media zone, has said it will close up to ten fresh deals this year.

Ibtikar, which provides capital for Arab entrepreneurs and businesses producing Arabic-language media content, has a pipeline of deals pending in areas including gaming and production, said Tony Orsten, CEO of twofour54.  

“There’s a lot more coming. It’s across all areas; it’s production, it’s gaming, it’s internet,” he told Arabian Business. “In this country, it takes longer than expected to get from ‘let’s talk about it’ to signing the deal. But the theory is that when the deal is signed and we’re done, it [the business] floats.”

One of these deals will involve a tie-up with a multinational gaming firm, to distribute Arabic-language games across the region.

“We’ll have a very large gaming partner working with us from the international world, which we can’t talk about,” said Orsten. “Gaming already has a way to get to market and is relatively cheap and these big firms are looking for opportunities.”

To date, Ibtikar has received more than 800 applications for capital.

In June, Ibtikar announced the launch of a seed fund, AppsArabia, to drive the development of Arabic-language mobile applications for devices such as the iPhone and iPad and BlackBerry.

The fund has received “hundreds” of ideas for apps, Orsten said.

“Some fantastic ideas have come through, right through to corporate ideas that have come from Abu Dhabi companies. Both government and private, which was very interesting. I think we are close to signing a couple. The first one will probably be in the summer.”

Twofour54’s past deals have included a tie-up with US media conglomerate Viacom to launch Comedy Central Studios Arabia, which will produce Arabic-language comedy content.

“We’re funding that on the basis that we believe very strongly that comedy programming is something that is highly sought after by all the broadcasters in the region,” said Orsten.

The studio’s first show is in pre-production.

The multimedia firm has also inked a deal with Cartoon Network, a unit of Time Warner, to launch an Arab animation academy and production studio. The animation academy is slated to launch in September, while the studio is set to launch early next year.