A unit of international media group Naspers, namely its subsidiary Myriad International Holdings, is to buy a 28.7% stake in Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the Russian firm behind investments in notable Internet companies like Facebook, Groupon and Zynga.
Naspers will be investing $388 million in cash, and contribute its 39.3% stake in Mail.ru into DST. Concurrently, Mail.ru management and other minorities will also convert their shares into the investment firm, and when the transaction closes DST will own 99.9% of Mail.ru, Russia’s largest Internet portal by a margin.
Remember when we reported Naspers was actually in the running to buy ICQ on its own back in November 2009? Well, we’re almost full circle now – DST recently became the new owner of the instant messaging pioneer.
Three months ago, China’s Tencent also made a strategic investment (to the tune of $300 million) in DST. Now guess who owns 35% of Tencent?
Yup, Naspers does.
Naspers is a leading multinational media group, incorporated in 1915 as a public limited liability company and listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in September 1994. The company also has an ADR listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Over the past two decades the group has evolved from a traditional print media business in one country, to a broad-based e-media company in multiple markets. The group’s principal operations are in internet platforms (focussing on commerce, communities, content, communication and...
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Boston, MA
Berlin, Germany
San Francisco
