—Mail.ru earnings The Russian economy has slowed, but ru.net’s revenue growth hasn’t: Mail.ru, the country’s leading email provider and the world’s top Russian language site with 40 million monthly users, had revenues of $74.6 million (£45.3 million)—a 45 percent year-on-year increase—and income of $34.3 million (£20.8 million), a 29 percent…

Facebook may not be rushing to go public, but Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian investment fund that just paid $200 million for 1.96 percent of the social network, does plan to float. CEO, co-founder and former Mail.ru chief Yuri Milner tells Slon.ru (via Yakov): “Our model ... is to exit…

Digital Sky Technologies London partner Alexander Tamas and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (pictured, right) met with a steady stream of reporters Tuesday afternoon, explaining why a company with lots of money wanted such a small stake in Facebook—and why a company that says it needs no money took a new…

Eastern European e-commerce group MIH Allegro—owned by South African publisher Naspers—has bought a 51 percent stake in Ukrainian online business directory and e-commerce site UAProm.net, according to Yakov. The amount paid wasn’t disclosed, the site’s founders will remain in charge for at least three years. Launched in April 2008, the…

Some of the pre-credit crunch rules still apply to the digital economy: Russia is experiencing massive growth and private equity houses fund some of the biggest deals. Both those rules are proven by Russia’s biggest software vendor 1C Company, which is looking to raise up to $100 million (£68.3 million)…

Update: iCrossing’s release corrects Yakov’s earlier report that iCrossing was acquiring Ingate—the companies stress that the deal is a partnership. A spokesman for iCrossing points out that the deal mirrors a similar tie-in with Chinese SEM firm Beijing Gridsum Technology in December and is part of a drive to extend…

This is turning into a genuine investment trend across Europe: online shopping club KupiVIP.ru has managed to raise $8 million (£5.49 million) in second round funding from VC firm Mangrove Capital Partners, Arlana and ABRT, as Yakov reports. The Privat Trade-owned company has grown to 200,000 registered users since its…

However most people watch TV now, it’s a fair bet they will be watching it in a different way in 12 months’ time. With the Cable Congress set to kick off on Wednesday in Berlin and the IPTV World Forum next week, TV companies will be looking over the technologies…

—Mediaequals: Digital ad-trading platform MediaEquals MD and co-founder Gary Goodman is the company’s new CEO for Europe as part of its plans to expand across the continent. The site came out of beta in April last year and allows publishers to detail their inventories and ad agencies to buy up…

As predicted last month, the CEO of Rambler Media Group, one of Russia’s top web outfits, is stepping down after two years at the helm. The company is floated on London’s AIM exchange, has all of its business operations run from there. Mark Opzoomer is quitting “in order to pursue…

Russian digital investment company ru-Net II has bought online music and film distribution platform Digital Access from joint owners including Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music Entertainment, according to Russian newspaper Kommersant, via Yakov. Digital Access was founded in 2007 with investment from Access Industries, WMG,…

We knew Russia’s online economy was booming compared to the rest of Europe, and now here’s an extra slice of proof: the online advertising market in the country grew 55 percent year on year to 14.7 billion rubles (£292.9 million) in 2008, according to a report from Mindshare Interaction, via…

E-xecutive, a Russian professional networking site that’s like a LinkedIn for the most senior execs, will be sold in the next few weeks, Russia’s Kommersant business paper says. The site’s owner B2B Media, a trade magazine publisher, was itself sold earlier this year by Prof-Media, which also owns the Rambler…

As new media companies diversify into other areas to counteract a downturn in advertising spend, Russia’s third-biggest internet company Mail.ru has come up with a novel idea: financing movies. The company is investing $5 million (£3.06 million) in forthcoming Russian horror film Viy, around a quarter of its production costs,…

In the fast-growing Russian internet scene, one of the big three portals, Rambler, could be about to lose its CEO, after losing market share and seeing the sale of its advertising unit to Google (NSDQ: GOOG) fail. Mark Opzumerom won’t renew his contract, which ends in March, after Rambler.ru’s share…

LiveJournal’s Moscow-based owner Sup yesterday laid off most of its remaining San Francisco staff in a restructuring that will also involve the departure of VP and GM Matt Berardo after just seven months, we have confirmed. The rejigging means product development and design move to Russia, though servers, admin and…

Wasabi, the social network formerly called Passado and whose owner is suing to claim ownership of Russia’s leading social network, will offer its core infrastructure to companies on a white-label basis, as it seeks an additional revenue stream in the face of competition and stuttering social media ad growth. Like…

While you were off for Christmas, the ownership of Russia’s top website (according to TNS) shifted a little. Tiger Global Management hedge fund sold its 27 percent stake in Mail.ru to its existing shareholders Digital Sky Technologies and Naspers. The Russian online investment vehicle and the South African media outfit…

Even though the global financial meltdown has been affecting Russia as well, media companies still see enough growth potential to make entering that market worthwhile. The Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company has entered into a joint venture with Russian cable company Media-One to create a free-to-air Disney channel. The channel,…