South African media company Naspers has acquired a 30% minority stake in Russian internet company Mail.ru for $165-million.
The shares have been acquired from Digital Sky Technologies and Tiger Global Management, who remain shareholders of the company, Naspers said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Mail.ru is a leading provider of internet and communication services to the global Russian-speaking community, estimated to be approximately 300-million people.
Ranked as the number one e-mail service for Russian-speaking users, it markets and provides a wide range of communication services. At present Mail.ru has about 24-million unique monthly visitors, and about two billion monthly page views.
Commenting on the acquisition, Naspers global internet CEO, Antonie Roux, said: “We are impressed with Mail.ru’s excellent management team. What we have found particularly striking is the superb quality of software engineers the Russian education system provides.” ‒ I-Net Bridge