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Internet Search Engine Bought by Upstart Holding
Ignoring recent global
losses in high-tech stocks, newly-born RuNet Holdings Ltd.
grabbed a third of the RuNet market by acquiring yandex.ru and
the Yandex trademark on Thursday.
Ru-Net hoping Ozon.ru becomes Russia’s Amazon
Ru-Net Holdings Ltd., the
newly founded, partly Western consortium, has made its first
move by acquiring a 51 percent stake in St. Petersburg online
bookseller Ozon for $1.8 million.
Apr 05, 2000
Russian Phone Firm Rostelecom Likely to Rise More on Internet Demand
OAO Rostelecom shares have more
than doubled in three months and are set to rise further on
optimism growing demand for Internet services will boost the
Russian long-distance phone service's profits, investors said.
Baring-UFG $20 mln fund targets Russian Internet
Baring
Vostok
Capital
Partners
and
Russia's
United
Financial
Group
have
opened
a
$20.5
million
Russian
Internet
direct
equity
fund
and
bought
a
$3
million
stake
in
an
on-line
book seller,
the
firms
said
on Friday.
Russian Golden Telecom sees
growth
Russian telecommunications
and Internet firm Golden Telecom will see steady revenues in
core telephony groups and rising sales in the integrated voice
and data arena, the company's president said.
Feb 25, 2000
Bradley Cook got new job
Bradley Cook, former Editor-in-Chief of The
St. Petersburg Times
in St. Petersburg, Russia, has joined the editorial team of NewsMax.com as
editor of NewsMaxUK.com.
Feb 24, 2000
Telia is breaking on
Russian market
By way of a share acquisition Telia has entered as
industrial partner in First National Holding/Telecominvest - one of the three
most important telecom and IT-groups in Russia. The transaction is valued at 700
million SEK.
Feb 23, 2000
Golden Telecom Introduces
Enhanced Internet Services
The new tariff plans provide
a complete package of Internet services for the dial-up access market. Monthly
pre-paid packages, including 20 or 50 hours online
Feb 22, 2000
No Windows 2000, No Cryptography
The Federal Agency of Government Communication and Information (FAPSI) is not
going to prevent the sales of Windows 2000 in Russia.
Feb 21, 2000
Comcor,
Andersen Group found joint venture
Moscow Telecommunications Corporation (Comcor)
and Andersen Group have announced that they have created a joined venture called
Comcor-TV.
|
Top Internet Search Engine Bought by Upstart Holding
The Moscow Times
By Igor Semenenko
STAFF WRITER
Ignoring recent global losses in high-tech stocks, newly-born RuNet
Holdings Ltd. grabbed a third of the RuNet market by acquiring
yandex.ru and the Yandex trademark on Thursday.
RuNet Holdings Ltd., founded in February by Baring Vostok Capital
Partners and the United Financial Group, spent $5.28 million to buy a
35.72 percent stake in yandex.ru, one of the top Cyrillic script
search engines. According to Yandex, the search engine is visited by
over 40,000 people a day.
"The amount invested will allow the company to expand for at
least 18 months," said Yelena Ivashchentseva, a manager with
RuNet Holdings Ltd.
RuNet Holdings Ltd. itself obtained a cushion worth $20.5 million
two years ago from its founders, and is now actively expanding. At the
time of its inception, the holding aimed to add five to seven more
projects before the end of the year, on top of its $1.8 million
purchase of a 51 percent stake in St. Petersburg's Ozone online
retailer.
Project managers were upbeat about the new ventures prospects
Thursday, despite the recent bloodbath at Nasdaq, which is down 25.3
percent from its record high on March 10.
"In times of crisis, people start to search for value,"
said Ivashchentseva, citing that Yahoo shares were up 2.69 percent
despite yesterday's 7.1 percent slump of the Nasdaq index.
The new managers' team puts Yandex's value at $14.78 million, 30
times the amount of its annual revenues.
Yandex posted advertising revenues of $40,000 in March, and its new
owners boast that each month revenues grow by 30 percent to 35 percent.
Yandex's current market share is estimated at 20 percent to 30
percent, and its managers hope that the company will end up with a
share of no less than 10 percent by the 2003, when the advertising
Internet market could grow to $100 million, up from almost nothing
last fall.
"I do not see why we could not capture a market share equal to
that of radio advertising," said Arkady Volozh, a director with
Yandex.
According to Volozh, the existing advertising market,
conservatively estimated to be worth $1.5 billion to $2 billion, was
dominated by television ads worth $500 million, paper media ads worth
$600 million and outdoor advertising, which has annual revenues of
some $200 million.
Radio ads draw in $100 million annually, and other advertisers earn
the remaining $400 million.
