DAMAC, a Dubai-based multinational group with business interests in industrial works, property and investment banking, has acquired a stake in Juno.
DAMAC will participate on the board and executive committee of the New York-based ISP.
“The Internet will rewrite the rules of business, finance and society. The Net is as revolutionary in its impact on world business as radio and TV were in earlier decades,” said Hussain Sajwani, chairman of DAMAC. “We hope our investment in Juno helps DAMAC contribute to the development of the Gulf’s Internet services and digital media infrastructure of the twenty first century.”
Sajwani also referred to a new breed of Arab investors on Wall Street, explaining that DAMAC has invested its own capital and invited a selected number of its associates in the Gulf to co-invest in Internet ventures.
“We want to bring Silicon Valley to the Gulf,” added Sajwani. “Our objective is to gain both knowledge and profit because this has been the tradition of Arab culture for centuries.”
Juno is the world’s second largest provider of dial-up Internet access services after America Online, with 6.6 million accounts created since the launch of the service in April 1996.