Mail.ru Group, which owns a controlling stake in several key Russian Internet properties, exercised its option to raise its stake in Vkontakte.ru from 32.49% to 39.99%, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported yesterday.
The move did not immediately affect the valuation of Vkontakte.ru, which at a current $1.5 billion, remains unchanged from last year, when Mail.ru Group acquired a similar stake.
Last February, Mail.ru Group general manager Dmitry Grishin expressed interest in taking control of Vkontakte “or, even better, to acquire all of its shares.”
But Vkontakte.ru general manager and main shareholder Pavel Durov ruled out such a possibility, considering it to be “utopian.”
Last month, Vkontakte.ru was reported to prepare a potential initial public offering in New York as early as next year.
Vkontakte.ru — ‘In contact’ in Russian — stands as Russia’s leading social network with a total of 35.2 million Russian users last May, according to ComScore, and a monthly reach of 23.5 million users between the ages of 12 and 54 last April, according to TNS.
The influence of Vkontakte, which offers versions in more than 60 languages, is not limited to Russia. The website has opened over 125 million accounts worldwide and claims to generate more than half of the Internet traffic in Russia and the other former Soviet republics of the CIS.
Based on data from the Russian company database Spark, Vedomosti also reported that Vkontakte’s revenues reached 2.3 billion rubles, or $82 million, in 2010, more than twice the 2009 figure. The company’s net profit reached 453 million rubles, or $16.2 million, up 22.7% from 2009.
Of the three largest Russian-language social networks, Mail.ru group owns controlling stakes in two – MoiMir and Odnoklassniki.ru. The group also operates Mail.Ru, Russia’s leading portal and e-mail service; Mail.Ru Agent and ICQ, the two largest IM networks in Russia, acquired from AOL in 2010; as well as a range of online games and e-commerce sites. In October 2010, Mail.ru Group successfully began trading on the London Stock Exchange.
