Around the Net

Facebook Investor Mail.ru Files IPO

As many expected, Russian Internet company Mail.ru Group has filed an for an initial public offering in London, Bloomberg reports. Who cares? Well, for one, it's seeking as much as $876 million, and it presently holds strategic investments in some top U.S. Web companies, including Facebook, Zynga and Groupon.

Formerly named Digital Sky Technologies, Mail.ru includes the Russian email and gaming website Mail.ru, the ICQ instant-messaging system it acquired from AOL, social networking site Odnoklassniki.ru, and stakes in Russian networking site VKontakte.ru and payment-terminal system Qiwi. Now, the company plans to sell 3 million new shares while existing shareholders including the company's founders will sell the rest, according to a term sheet for the sale obtained by Bloomberg. Of particular note, one Russian investment banker tells Bloomberg: "It's the only way to get exposure to Facebook so it might attract a broad range of investors," regarding Mail.ru. "This is a sector which is not available on the market which means the placement will probably be at a premium to western firms like Google and Yahoo."

Read the whole story at Bloomberg »

Next story loading loading..