Russian business daily Vedomosti revealed this past Friday that United Capital Partners (UCP), the Russian fund that currently owns 48% of Vkontakte (VK.com), has offered to sell its stake to majority shareholder Mail.ru Group. Mail.ru Group has been trying to take full control of the network for several years – a step which Vkontakte’s founder and CEO Pavel …
UCP considers selling its Vkontakte stake to Mail.ru Group Read More
Mail.ru Group announced yesterday that it has signed an agreement to acquire an additional 12% stake in Vkontakte.ru, the leading Russian-language social network also known as VK.com. Should the deal – which is “conditional on a number of matters, including third-party consent” – be completed, the LSE-listed Internet group will own 52% of Vkontakte. The remaining 48% …
Mail.ru Group to become majority shareholder of Vkontakte.ru Read More
Today Yandex, the Russian search giant, announced the acquisition of Israeli startup KitLocate, the developer of an energy-efficient geolocation technology for mobile devices. The solution provides location capabilities, including geo-fencing, motion detection and social location, for location-based apps on the user’s iOS or Android smartphone. Furthermore, it allows location-based apps to request the device’s geographic coordinates less frequently “without …
Yandex acquires Israeli geo-location technology developer KitLocate Read More
Spanish bank BBVA has acquired Simple, giving Russian fintech fund Life.SREDA its first exit. BBVA paid $117 million for the American innovative banking app, giving Life.SREDA a 180% return on the investment it made in June 2013. Simple, which was founded in summer 2012, helps clients to control their spending and to meet saving targets. …
Gazprombank, an affiliate of the state-controlled gas giant, now has a controlling stake in WebMediaGroup, after acquiring the stake previously held by Rostelecom’s president Sergey Kalugin. WebMediaGroup’s other shareholders are Leader Innovations and individual investors. Gazprombank and Leader Innovations had acquired minority stakes in the company in 2011.
Last week Renova, a Russian group owned by billionaire Viktor Vekselberg – who also heads the Skolkovo Foundation – announced the acquisition of Octo Telematics, a leading Italo-British provider of insurance telematics services (also known as ‘smart insurance’). Renova Group has acquired 100% of the company from existing shareholders, which include Montezemolo & Partners, an …
Renova takes over Italo-British insurance telematics service provider Read More
The French search engine for car-sharing BlaBlaCar has taken over the Ukrainian site Podorozhniki, in order to enter the Russian and Ukrainian market. The cost of the deal has not been disclosed, as was the case with the expansion in Italy and Spain, but the Podorozhniki site is no longer available and all of its …
French car-sharing service BlaBlaCar expands to Ukraine and Russia Read More
Yandex announced earlier this week an agreement with MultiShip, a Moscow-based startup that aggregates offers from different shipment companies to help online retailers optimize their deliveries across the country. In addition to acquiring a stake in the startup for “several millions,” the NASDAQ-listed Russian search giant has purchased MultiShip’s software platform for $1 million, with …
Yandex invests in MultiShip: A perfect match on the Russian e-commerce service scene Read More
Pavel Durov, the founder of VKontakte.ru (VK.com), Russia’s leading social network, has sold his 12% stake in the company to Ivan Tavrin, the general director of mobile operator Megafon and a member of the Mail.Ru Group‘s board of directors. In his post on Vkontakte, Durov said that he would continue to oversee the company’s functioning …
Vkontakte founder sells his stake while the social network sets new traffic record Read More
Yesterday, Moscow-based venture fund Target Ventures announced it has acquired the Afisha-Rambler Group’s 49% stake in TimePad, a startup that offers online tools for event organizers. The amount of the transaction has not been disclosed. The new shareholder may provide the startup with a capital injection in the near future, the fund’s Mikhail Lobanov told …
Target Ventures acquires Afisha-Rambler Group’s stake in TimePad Read More
Trivon AG, the Switzerland-based company which does business through its subsidiaries under the Virgin Connect brand in Russia, announced today that it has acquired 100% of MegaMax, one of the leading B2B broadband and telecom operators in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The MegaMax Group has developed its own …
VTB Bank, a leading, state-owned Russian bank, surprised the Russian telecom market last week by announcing the sale of a 50% stake in Tele2 Russia, Russia’s fourth largest mobile operator. The Bank had acquired 100% of shares in Tele2Russia for $3.55 billion just six months ago from the Swedish telecom group Tele2 AB. The buyer …
VTB sheds 50% of its Tele2 Russia asset in unexpected deal Read More
