Digital Sky Technologies Helps To Create A Russian Internet Powerhouse
Moscow, Russia – 1 December 2009 – Digital Sky Technologies (DST), a leading global internet investment group, has merged its majority stake in Russia’s leading online communication portal Mail.ru with its majority stake in the number one Russian online games developer Astrum Online to help create a new Internet powerhouse addressing a population of over 300 million Russian speakers globally.
DST has helped to build Astrum Online over several years by merging four top game developers into the Astrum holding in 2007. Mail.ru and Astrum Online have since established a strong operational working relationship and are now in a position to deeply integrate their platforms to bring their services to a combined audience of over 50 million users.
“We are delighted that Mail.ru and Astrum Online are now in a position to lead the Russian Internet market as a combined force. Merging communication, information and entertainment is a natural step for both companies and we are happy to have been in a position to facilitate the transaction,” said Yuri Milner, chief executive of DST.
After the transaction Mail.ru will become the 100% owner of Astrum Online. The transaction is structured as an acquisition of Astrum Online shares by Mail.ru, paid for by a combination of Mail.ru’s shares and cash. The combined company will continue to operate under the Mail.ru brand. Dmitry Grishin will be President and CEO and Igor Matsanyuk and Vladimir Nikolskiy will become First Vice President and Vice President, respectively.
“Online games represent an important strategic area for Mail.ru, since this is one of the most efficient means of online audience monetisation at the moment. Astrum Online is the clear leader in the Russian online games market with the best-in-class expertise, and we welcome the opportunity to offer its products to Mail.ru’s user audience. The operations of the two companies are complementary, and we hope that the synergies from the transaction will enable the company to move to the next level,” said Dmitry Grishin, CEO of Mail.ru.
“An active audience is the essential component of any online game, and the larger the audience, the more interesting and attractive this product becomes. After the integration with Mail.ru we will be able to offer our wide range of gaming projects to the largest user base in the Russian speaking Internet. Moreover, today Mail.ru is the Russian portal of choice for socialising and entertainment, which makes it the ideal platform for further development of Astrum Online’s popular games,” added Igor Matsanyuk, First Vice President of Mail.Ru.
About DST
DST is the largest internet investor in the Russian-speaking and Eastern European markets and one of the leading investment groups globally to exclusively focus on internet and internet-related companies. DST is a privately held holding company backed by leading Russian and Western financial institutions.
For more information please visit: www.dst-global.com.About Mail.ru
Mail.Ru is the largest communication portal in the Runet with a monthly audience exceeding 50 million users. It provides these users with around 40 services, including the largest free email service in Russia and the CIS countries, Russia’s leading instant messenger (Mail.ru Agent), national social network (Moi Mir@Mail.Ru), photo, video and blog hosting services (Photo@Mail.Ru, Video@Mail.Ru, Blogi@Mail.Ru), leading game portal (Games@Mail.Ru), search engine (Poisk@Mail.Ru) and many others. The portal has 8 offices in Russia – in Moscow, St Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk, Samara and Kazan, as well as a representative office in Kiev (Ukraine). For more information please visit: www.mail.ru.
About Astrum Online
Astrum Online Entertainment is the largest interactive online entertainment holding company in Russia and Eastern Europe, comprising five companies: Astrum Nival, Nikita.Online, IT Territory, TimeZero and DJ Games. The companies of the group operate over 30 successful massively multiplayer online games. For more information please visit: www.astrumonline.ru.
