Just days after acquiring the Russian publisher Lux Media, Sanoma Magazines, the magazine division of SanomaWSOY Group, agreed to acquire 68% shares in the leading Bulgarian web publisher Net Info.BG from a group of venture capital and private investors.

Net Info owns the most popular Bulgarian free email service Abv.bg, online diretory Gbg.bg, video sharing site Vbox7.com and news portal Netinfo.bg. Net Info’s net sales amounted to EUR 2.3 million and EBITDA of EUR 1.2 million in 2007. The company, which employs 127 full-time staff, expected its net sales to double to EUR 4.6 million in 2008.

As a part of the deal, Sanoma will invite other shareholders of Net Info holding 15% of the shares to sell their shares and agreed with the remaining shareholders to buy their 17% of shares before 2011.

In Bulgaria, Sanoma has a leading position in consumer magazine publishing through its company Sanoma Bliasak Bulgaria. Koos Guis, CEO of Sanoma Magazines International said that through the acquisition Sanoma would immediately achieve similar market leading positions in digital media as it did in magazine publishing in Bulgaria.

In Russia, Independent Media, part of Sanoma Magazines recently acquired blogging business Webpark.ru and women’s portal Ameno.ru.

Independent Media, part of Sanoma Magazines, the magazine division of SanomaWSOY Group, agreed to acquire a 55% stake in the Russian glossy magazine publisher Lux Media. The deal could be valued at EUR 5 million.

Lux Media publishes the fashion magazine Collezioni, real estate magazine Homes Overseas, and brides title Wedding. The company was founded in January 2005 and has 50 full-time staff. Its annual net sales reached EUR 4 million.

As a part of the deal, Independent Media will have an option to acquire the remaining 45% of Lux Media before 2012. Artyom Keand, the founder of Lux Media will remain with the company as General Director. The deal is expected to close the second quarter of 2008.

In its press release, SanomaWSOY said that the acquisition would strengthen Independent Media’s position in the luxury segment of the Russian glossy magazine market.

Independent Media’s title portfolio in Russia includes internationally known magazine brands Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, FHM, Men’s Health, Esquire, as well as the newspapers Vedomosti and The Moscow Times, among others.

In February 2005, Sanoma Magazines acquired Independent Media for an enterprise value of EUR 142 million or multiple of 2 to its annual net sales. Independent Media recently acquired blogging business Webpark.ru and women’s portal Ameno.ru.

National Media Group (NMG) together with its shareholders agreed to acquire National Telecommunications (NTK), a leading Russian provider of cable TV and broadband Internet access services, valuing NTK at some $1.5 billion, reported news agency Interfax. NMG will acquire a controlling stake in NTK while the remaining stake will be acquired by NMG’s shareholders Severstal, Surgutneftegaz, and Bank ROSSIYA.

NTK reported revenues of $216 million in 2007, up 74% from 2006. Its EBITDA doubled to $120 million in 2007. The company that recently changed its name from National Cable Networks (NKS) had 5.1 million households passed in the end of 2007, including 1.8 million in St. Petersburg and 0.6 million in Moscow. It had 111 thousand broadband Internet service subscribers. NTK’s shareholders are investment group Nafta with 98% stake and Delta Private Equity (2%).

National Media Group, which was set up in February 2008, owns majority of leading Russian TV channels: 68% of REN TV and 72% of TRK Petersburg -5th Channel. NMG’s shareholders include Bank ROSSIYA with 54.96% stake, steel group Severstal (19.49%), oil & gas producer Surgutneftegaz (19.49%), and insurance group SOGAZ (6.06%).

The largest Russian mobile phone operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) is the first and only Russian company that was named as one of the world’s Top 100 Most Powerful Brands, the third annual BrandZ™ Ranking announced by leading global market research and consulting firm Millward Brown.

MTS was ranked 89^th in the BrandZ Top 100 list with a brand value of $8.1 billion. MTS reported revenues of $8.2 billion in 2007, up 29% from 2006. The company had 85 million subscribers in the end of March 2008. MTS and its associates and subsidiaries are licensed to provide GSM services in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Armenia and Belarus with a total population of more than 230 million.

Google topped the BrandZ Ranking of the world’s Top 100 Most Powerful Brands for the second consecutive year with a value of $86.1 billion followed by GE at $71.4 billion and Microsoft at $70.8 billion.

Millward Brown also named Russia’s 2nd largest mobile phone operator Beeline among “brands to watch in future brand rankings”.

Beeline and MTS were named the best Russian brands in Interbrand Zintzmeyer & Lux’s third annual ranking of 40 most valuable Russian brands in October 2007.

Rambler Media, the holding company for the second largest Russian search engine and portal Rambler, is set to launch Rambler Cinema as a free video-download service, reported business daily Kommersant. The service will be supported by in-video advertisements. Rambler plans to generate $1 million in advertising revenues from the service in the first year of its operations.

Rambler Media has partnered with Hiro Media, an Israeli developer of ad-supported video-download technology, whose software allows to dynamically select advertisements that are suited to demographical information users provide when they sign-up for the service.

Rambler also agreed with TV channel TNT and TV series producer Starmedia to offer 400 hours of video content from their libraries starting from May 2008. It will increase to 1,000 hours of video content by the fall 2008.

The advertisers will be offered to buy advertisements at $350 per 1,000 video views. The initial monthly audience of Rambler Cinema is expected to reach 1 million users. Rambler Vision, a video sharing service of Rambler has 1.8 million monthly users, according to the company.