Waiting is gold

The top manager Mail.ru announced interest in increasing the stake in contact. In other words, the application for de facto merging “Contact” and “Odnoklassniki” was made. Contact shareholders do not want to part with the company. The market is growing and their company is getting more expensive - what to rush to?

Another conflict on the Internet. This is not a quarrel on forums and blogs, but about the absorption of the social network “in contact” by its minority shareholder - Mail.Ru Group (shareholders are Alisher Usman with partners and Naspers holding), which also controls the same largest social network “Odnoklassniki”.

“The union would be advisable, given the intensifying competition between Russian networks and international sites,” explained the head of the holding Dmitry Grishin at the Russian Internet forum conference recently. A source close to the holding told the RBC-Daily newspaper that Mail.ru Group has an option to increase the share in the Contact’s share capital to 40% and the holding intends to implement it.

The press service of Mail.ru by the Internet publication “Glaz.ru” clarified that at the Internet forum “RIF-2011” Dmitry Grishin was asked about Mail.ru plans for the acquisition of control over “Odnoklassniki” and “In contact”. The head of Mail.Ru said that Russian companies need to jointly withstand foreign enemies such as Facebook and Google. As for plans to acquire control over social networks, Dmitry Grishin replied: “Strategically, this would be the right step. But will we be able to agree, time will tell. ”

There are doubts that any unification of social networks will help them to compete more effectively with global meaggers, even exclusively in the Russian -speaking segment. One way or another, but it is obvious that Mail.ru has an interest in obtaining control over “in contact”. And it’s clear why.

As a result of literally before the eyes of the Internet revolution, social networks have become quite attractive business, refuting the doubts of skeptics whether it is possible to earn it.

The revenue “in contact” for RAS in 2010 amounted to 1.094 billion rubles in 2010, almost 7 times increasing compared to 2009. This is 500 million less than that of Odnoklassniki. Net profit grew 3.9 times and amounted to 369.3 million rubles. This is a little more than that of Odnoklassniki. The audience in contact, according to TNS, in January 2011 amounted to 23.2 million people. At the same time, “Odnoklassniki” overtook “classmates” in the contact in 2009 and since then the gap has only increased.

In January, about 20 million people visited “my world” in January.ru, “Odnoklassniki” - 16 million revenue of Mail.ru Group for 2010 - $ 324 million, net profit - $ 76.7 million. Capitalization on the London Exchange is more than $ 6 billion.

The control package “In contact” is located with its founders - Vyacheslav Mirilashvili, Mikhail Mirilashvili, Lev Levieva and Pavel Durov. Mail.ru entered the company's capital in 2007, at the end of 2010 increased a stake in to 32.5 percent. “In contact” was then estimated at $ 1.5 billion. In 2007, when selling shares “in contact” it was estimated at only $ 65 million.

According to the director of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications, Sergey Plugotarenko, Runet now has 57 million users. Over the past year, the number of network users increased by 22 percent. According to TNS, the Russian -language segment of the Internet “inhabit” 60 million users.

If the trend will be stored, then the owners in contact, after waiting, will be able to help out significantly more for the company.

The absorption of “in contact” Mail.ru would give a certain synergistic effect - when coordinating the advertising policy and the sale of additional services of the two largest networks, it would be possible to increase profitability. How much Alisher Usmanova is able to implement the plan - a big question.

The owners in contact say that they do not want to lose control of the company and do not intend to sell their shares.

The shareholders in contact consistently refute even the very fact of negotiations on the redemption of their share. “Rumors that Mail.ru Group is in the process of negotiations on the purchase of VKontakte do not correspond to reality. The situation in which“ Contact ”is fully included in the Mail.Ru Group holding, we exclude and consider utopian,” the media representatives from shareholders published in early March 2011 said in an open letter. They doubt the effectiveness of absorption. “The share of“ in contact ”as part of Mail.ru Group can only be a financial investment, and plans to integrate at the service level, management or sale of advertising between Mail.ru Group projects and“ in contact ”,” the letter said.