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Tag Archive: russia

image thumb109 Russians Continue To Show Interest Outside Russia: Digital Sky Technology Acquires ICQ For $187.5 Million

It appears the Russian investment firm,Digital Sky Technologies has got some real liking for investing outside the Russian border. Primarily in those that are known names across the Web. DST has been very active in making huge funding in prominent names like the social media platform, Facebook and also in the largest social gaming platform; Zynga [the producer of Farmville and Mafia Wars] worth $180 Million.

The interest in these firms has been enormous and it was bound to bag some other big names. The latest news is of DST acquiring AOL’s ICQ and that is a big move for AOL that had been looking forward to sell off many of its services and ICQ was one of them. The Russians have acquired the Desktop based chat client for $187.5 Million and the deal will be finalized by the third quarter.

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image thumb30 Chinese Firm, Tencent Invests In Facebook’s Investor: Russian Digital Sky Technologies

Alright China has some major issues with directly investing into Facebook, perhaps fearing it might have to allow the social network more access to its people. But making an indirect link doesn’t sound that bad and there is always an option. China’s leading Internet firm, Tencent has made a $300 Million investment in Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies. The same DST that has made major investments in Facebook, Zynga [Farmville creator].

The investment will give Tencent a 10.26% share in DST. I am not sure what shares does it translate to for Facebook, in which DST has 3.5 stake. The investment is pretty striking for me, given that only recently I stated that penetrating China, is going to be a major problem for Facebook but firms in the region see the prospects of making investments as it is a definite profit, one thing that wont translate to losses any time in the future. As for Facebook, it just adds more value to the platform, the greater firms get associated to it, the easier it becomes for it to gain penetration into the International market, even in regions where the idea is a bit too difficult.

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image thumb15 Mail.ru’s Search Now Powered By Google: Bye Bye Yandex!

Talk about overthrowing the local leader, Google has taken Russia by storm as it replaced Yandex as the search engine for Mail.ru, the leading internet portal of Russia. Well there has been no word from either of the two parties. This is quite a comeback for Google in the Russian market, given that it was replaced by Yandex back in 2006, up till now where tables have turned once again. I bet the offer must have been solid, which actually became the reason for Mail.ru to accept it. As for Google, its search market share would expand from 23% to 33% as the deal would add Mail.ru’s 10%, but that shouldn’t be of worry to Yandex which has a wopping 58% share.

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