Big news out of Russia today. Two of the largest Internet groups in the country – Rambler-Afisha (part of holding company ProfMedia) and SUP Media – are to merge, creating a combined entity that the two firms say will have the third-largest Internet audience in Russia.
Outlets that broke news of the deal included Rambler-Afisha-owned Lenta.ru and SUP Media-run Gazeta.ru and a press release is now live on SUP Media’s Russian language website and Rambler-Afisha’s holding company’s website. This is a big deal that changes the Russian online media landscape. It’s said that the merged company will have a combined audience of 35 million users, putting it third behind Yandex and Mail.ru Group.
Rambler-Afisha runs a number of online media outlets, including Afisha.ru, Lenta.ru and Motor.ru. Meanwhile, SUP Media is best known in the West for being the parent company of blogging platform Livejournal, although it also owns Gazeta.ru and Championat.com among other titles.
The deal will reportedly see SUP Media head, Alexander Mamut, take up the role of managing shareholder and chairman of the board of directors for the new company. More detail around the financial specifics of the merger have not been disclosed
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