News

Spotify Rumored To Be Taking Over Rival Anghami

The Abu Dhabi-based music streaming service was listed on the Nasdaq back in February of this year.

Published

4 years ago

November 4, 2022

spotify rumored to be taking over rival anghami

Music streaming giant Spotify is believed to be gearing up for a potential takeover of Abu Dhabi-based Anghami, which went public on the Nasdaq stock market in February, according to undisclosed sources.

Rumor has it that Anghami went public knowing that Spotify had shown interest in acquiring them. However, a Spotify spokesperson insisted there was no news to report on the matter, and Anghami representatives have also been tight-lipped.

Anghami, was the first Arab tech company to list on the Nasdaq, and recently moved its headquarters from Beirut to Abu Dhabi, after entering into the Abu Dhabi Investment Office’s Innovation Programme, to the tune of $545 million.

Also Read: The Technology Powering Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022

So why would a takeover make sense for Spotify? Well, for one, Anghami has a vast library of Arabic music and has signed deals with Egyptian star Amr Diab, and Saudi Arabia’s Rotana record label, the largest in the Middle East. The Abu Dhabi-based streaming service also has nearly 60% of the Middle Eastern market share, with 1.28 million paying subscribers and almost 20 million active users.

As Anghami continues to expand its reach, including a recent acquisition of Spotlight Events, a company that specializes in live events and concerts in the MENA region, interest from tech giants like Spotify will surely continue over the coming years.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.