Global Acquisitions – Rambler

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December 31, 2006 |

Phil Butler

Rambler Media issued a universal press release late Thursday, stating that Prof-Media has obtained regulatory approval to take control of the company. Rambler Media is a diversified Russian language media and entertainment service that operates several internet entities. Rambler maintains the leading internet portal and search engine rambler.ru, broadband ISP Rambler Telecom, and various other media outlets.

PM Invest Company Limited, the holding company for Prof-Media, will obtain an additional 6% of Rambler shares in January. This will give Prof-Media 55% of the stake in Rambler. The release also noted that PM has bought an additional 92,800 shares of the companies ordinary share capital.

Prof-Media is controlled by self made billionaire Vladimir Potanin. Mr. Potanin is recognized by Forbes as one of the richest men in the world, with an estimated worth of 6.5 billion dollars. Rambler Media is likely an acquisition to capitalize on the rapid growth in web advertising. The price paid for the shares was not released to the company by the purchasers.

Rambler boasts a variety of web community services including:

Lenta.ru – An on line Russian language newspaper with 1.6 million international readers

Doktor.ru – An internet site specializing in health related issues.

Mama.ru – A site dedicated to obstetrics and child development.

Ferra.ru – A site specializing in equipment sales.

Rambler’s search engine has upwards of 5.6 million weekly users, and over 14 million unique monthly users. There are over 6 million registered users that generate over 780 million page views per month. Rambler Media estimates that Rambler.ru reaches more than 56% of Russian Internet users! It is easy to see how Mr.Potanin made the Forbes 100.