Startups acquiring startups – a new emerging trend?

Obaid Ahmed of Mazaydar.com informs us that they have acquired Tazanaan.com and that the founder of Tazanaan.com Danyal Agheem has joined Mazaydar.com as Regional Director for Islamabad. How I wish I had known this yesterday during my flying one-day visit to Islamabad! I would have certainly tried to catch Danyal on tape (digital tape that is!)

In the announcement on his blog, Obaid certainly sounds excited about this acquisition. He says:

Today we are pleased (and excited!!) to announce that Tazanaan.com has been acquired by Mazaydar.com. This acquisition will provide our members with an improved listing service in cities like Islamabad. We are also pleased to announce that with this acquisition, we are now able to provide listings for Rawalpindi as well. The acquisition will result in greater efficiencies and significantly increase our market share. We also welcome the founder of Tazanaan.com, Danyal Agheem, to our team as our Regional Director for Islamabad. Danyal’s experience in running successful community based website will increase Mazaydar.com’s overall growth. We welcome Danyal to our team. Mazaydar.com also welcomes all current users of Tazanaan.com, we hope to provide them with the same excellent quality listings in Islamabad that Tazanaan has been providing.

Mazaydar has also appointed Mahmood Mirza and Bilal Ahmad as Community Directors for Karachi and Peshawar respectively. Both have great entrepreneurial skills and are passionate about taking Mazaydar to the next level.

I wonder is this a new trend? Instead of competing in the same space, are young entrepreneurs beginning to look at combining their strengths and energies to take their initiatives to the next level? I know one such deal does not entail a trend but I wonder if there areothers who are looking at this as an option? I am sure some are.

Good luck Obaid, Danyal and the team. Mazaydar on its own was headed places but having just looked at Tazanaan, I get the feeling you have just added a “tiger in your tank” 😉