How A Sino-Russian-African Bloc Is Setting Online Pace
Digital Sky Technologies, Naspers and Tencent are amongst the hottest digital media investment actors in Russia, South Africa and China.
An… Read more »
Federal Investigators Voice Worries About AOL’s Sale Of ICQ To Russia’s DST
An arm of the U.S Treasury is looking into concerns about AOL’s pending $187.5 million sale of instant messaging service ICQ to Russian inve… Read more »
AOL Sells IM Service ICQ To Russia’s DST For $187.5 Million
As expected, Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies says it has reached an agreement with AOL (NYSE: AOL) to buy its instant mess… Read more »
Tencent Invests $300 Million In Facebook And Zynga Backer Digital Sky Technologies
photo: Flickr / Jawen
Digital Sky Technologies, which has been busily investing hundreds of millions in American social media firms in recent months, now has a ne… Read more »
Binding Offers Submitted For AOL’s ICQ; IM Unit Valued At $300 Million
Two months after bids started ramping up for AOL’s instant messaging service ICQ came rushing in, it looks like the competition to own it is… Read more »
Broadband Content Bits: Virgin Web VOD, Russian Games, TV Ads
– Virgin web VOD: Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) will finally take its popular cable TV VOD service on to the web and mobile later this year. Co… Read more »
Russian Billionaire Lebedev Buys UK’s Independent Newspaper For £1
photo: AP Images
The Independent newspapers in UK ushered in a new chapter in their history today when they were sold to Russian billionaire and former KGB a… Read more »
Why Are Russians Spending Like Mad To Save Journalism?
Haven’t they read the mess newspapers are in? More money than sense?
Either way, at this rate, perhaps Russia’s growing oligarch set could… Read more »
Russian Hulu Lookalike, Ivi.ru, Opens For Business
photo: ivi.ru
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And, with Hulu yet to launch services outside its home market of the U.S., it’s no sur… Read more »
Rise of Russians: Rambler Bidding For ICQ; Quintura in Sale Talks With LexisNexis & ProQuest
The race to buy IM service ICQ from AOL (NYSE: AOL) is heating up. Last week came the news about some possible buyers: Russian investment gr… Read more »
Russia’s Quintura Says Google Infringing Visual Search Patent
A Russian search engine is going after Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and others it says are breaching its patent on a search technique. Quintura has b… Read more »
Broadband Content Bits: Euro Winter Olympics Coverage; Sky’s ITV Stake; Swedish VOD
– Euro Winter Olympics Coverage: The European Broadcasting Union is streaming Winter Olympics coverage free through its “Vancouver Live” po… Read more »
East European Social Network Concentration In Naspers/DST Deal?
South Africa’s Naspers and Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies (DST) are in talks to pool their Polish social networks Gadu-Gadu and Nasza-kla… Read more »
Russia’s Top Casual Gamer Sees $3 Million Stake Change Hands
photo: Alawar Entertainment
Some more VC activity in Russia’s gaming industry: Almaz Capital Russia Fund is picking up a 23 percent stake in Alawar Entertainment, the c… Read more »
Broadband Content Bits: Yandex Up, ITN Deutsch, Global Radio Reboot
– Yandex up: Russia’s largest search portal, reported in its 2009 preliminary results that revenues were up to 8.7 billion rubles (£180 bi… Read more »
Russia’s Going Premium And Going Overseas
photo: Nikita Sherman, CEO of Drimmi
Nikita Sherman marked out a reputation for himself as someone who can get digital content to pay when he was in charge of Odnoklassniki.ru,… Read more »
Russian Stealth Social Gamer Drimmi Raises ‘Several Million’
photo: Drimmi
Drimmi, a social gaming developer in Russia, has just reportedly raised “several million” dollars from Mangrove Capital and ABRT Fund before… Read more »
Broadband Content Bits: Ofcom/BSkyB; SweTorrents; RuNet Rises; British Museum/BBC; Novello/Games
– Ofcom/BSkyB: Ofcom says a final decision on forcing Sky to cut wholesale channel prices will come in March. The board is due to meet this… Read more »
Online Shopping Club KupiVIP.ru Raises Another $20 Million
photo: kupiVIP
More evidence of online shopping clubs continuing to do well with investors in the recession. Today, Russian online shopping club kupiVIP.ru… Read more »
Another Russian IPO Attempt? Rambler Delists As Owner Gears Up
photo: Flickr / yeowatzup
We reported back in November that Russian media investment firm Profmedia wanted to up its stake in top national portal and search site Ramb… Read more »
Google Makes A Play in Russia With Mail.ru Search Deal
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) wants a bigger piece of the Russian search market. Beginning in January, the company will become the default search engi… Read more »
Facebook Investor DST May Try To Corner Russian IM Market By Acquring AOL’s ICQ
Now that AOL (NYSE: AOL) CEO Tim Armstrong has said the most he’ll do with MapQuest is an operational partnership, not a sale, it looks like… Read more »
Report: Google Wins Russia Foothold With Mail.ru Search Deal
Having been thwarted by government antitrust authorities in its bid to invest in Russia last year, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is trying a different… Read more »
192.com Owner I-CD Ends Russian Social Net Ownership Dispute
I-CD Publishing, owner of UK business listings site 192.com, has resolved a lengthy dispute with a former director over the ownership of a l… Read more »
More Gaming M&A In Russia: Naspers Buying Astrum
Russian online games is a sector investors should be keeping a close eye on… South African media conglomerate Naspers has been granted ant… Read more »
Axel Springer Buys Gruner + Jahr’s Russian Business
The latest in a burst of M&A deals in the European media sector this week: German newspaper and magazine publisher Axel Springer is buying f… Read more »
Russian MMO Games Maker Nival Gets $5 Million Funding For New Title
Combining two of the digital investment world’s sweet spots — Russia and social games — Russian online games developer Nival is close to s… Read more »
Why Sony’s Planned Music Store Won’t Start Out As A Serious iTunes Challenger
*Sony* keeps flip-flopping over adding music downloads to the PlayStation Network (PSN). After scrapping plans to add a music store to the g… Read more »
Social Network Badoo Gets More Investment For Russian, International Push
Social network Badoo has won more investment from Russian financial group Finam, which ups its stake in the company from 10 to 20 percent, a… Read more »
RuNet Investor Profmedia Raising Equity For Rambler Stake Increase
Russian new media investment group Profmedia is raising equity to buy a bigger stake in Rambler.ru, the Russian content and search business… Read more »
MySpace Music Gets A Shot Of Life With More Videos, Analytics, And iTunes
Not to be left out of the blitz of digital music news being made by Google and Facebook today, MySpace is rolling out major upgrades to MySp… Read more »
Sony Skipping iTunes on Michael Jackson Release…
The iTunes Store will not be offering downloads from Michael Jackson’s posthumous album, This Is It, according to confidential information l… Read more »
Google Gets Russian AdSense Users From LiveJournal
LiveJournal has 22 million registered bloggers, many of them becoming increasingly prolific in what is now its native Russia – so why should… Read more »
Russian VOD Player Vidimax Gets $4.25 Million VC Funding
Russian investment bank Troika Dialog has invested $4.25 million (£2.61 million) through its VC wing in web video distribution company Vidi… Read more »
Russia's Yandex Valued At $1.1 Billion After Selling Nine Percent Stake
photo: Flickr / yeowatzup
Number-one Russian internet site and search engine Yandex is selling a nine percent stake to three private equity funds for about $100 milli… Read more »
DST Creates Russian Online Powerhouse By Merging Mail.ru And Astrum
photo: Flickr / yeowatzup
Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the Russian firm that recently paid $200 million for a two percent stake in Facebook, is playing puppet-mast… Read more »
Russian Parents' Social Net MiniBanda Gets Startup Funds
We’ve heard about generic social networks, we’ve heard about kids’ social nets; now a Russian social network for parents is starting up, and… Read more »
Broadband Content Bits: Wimbledon BBC Stats; Myvideorights Gets Mr Bean; Microsoft-Sup
photo: Staci D. Kramer
– BBC Wimbledon: The BBC Sport website clocked up 2.1 million views on Friday during Andy Murray’s ill-fated semi-final against Andy Roddic… Read more »
Russians Love Social Nets More Than Anyone, Vkontakte Dominant
We knew Russia’s online media were exploding; now comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) data shows the country’s internet users visit social networking site… Read more »
Russia Update: Mail.ru’s 45 Percent Revenue Boost; KupiVIP Investment; Digital Publisher Bought
– Mail.ru earnings The Russian economy has slowed, but ru.net’s revenue growth hasn’t: Mail.ru, the country’s leading email provider and th… Read more »
