Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who controls amost 40% of Vkontakte via the Mail.Ru Group, of which he is one of the main shareholders, is no longer considering an IPO for the social network. The decision was reported by the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, based on an exchange with Ivan Streshinsky, the general manager of Usmanov’s holding company USM Holdings.
One year ago, Vkontakte’s founder Pavel Durov himself had “postponed indefinitely” a potential IPO. “Facebook’s [failed] IPO has destroyed the trust of many individual investors in social networks,” he stated at the time.
However, Vkontakte’s new shareholder UCP stated two months ago that an IPO was “not ruled out” after “three or four years of development of the company and an increase in its valuation.”
Russia’s leading social network, Vkontakte – also known as VK.com – served more than 52 million Russian users from 12 to 64 years of age in May 2013, according to TNS.
