Google Buys Russian Contextual Ad Firm From Rambler For $140 Million

• Posted: Tuesday, July 22, 2008
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• Author: pradhana
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• Filed under: Google, Merger-Acquisition

By Rafat Ali

We have recently written about a flurry of Russian online deals, and this is among the bigger ones that have happened in the last year or so: Google has bought contextual advertising company ZAO Begun from it parent, the internet portal Rambler, for about $140 million.

Rambler currently owns 50.1 percent of Begun..under this deal, it would first buy the remaining 49.9 percent stake from Bannatyne Limited and then sell the entire firm to Google (NSDQ: GOOG). Rambler’s net gain from the disposal is expected to be about $50 million after all direct costs associated with the transaction, it said (PDF release here).

Rambler is traded on AIM in London, and last year sold a majority stake in the company to Russian media holding company Prof-Media‘s unit PM Invest Company (owned by billionaire Vladimir Potanin). Mark Opzoomer, former Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Europe Managing Director joined as CEO of the company mid last year. Begun was started six years ago, and has built an advertising and dealer network and direct sales team in Russia. During the first four months of 2008, Begun generated profits before taxation and minority interest of about $3.4 million.

Separately, Rambler has also signed a search and advertising deal with Google for its Rambler.ru portal. Rambler will continue to operate its own brands, web properties and other ad services. [PaidContent]

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