Rambler Media have agreed to sell ZAO Begun, one of Russia's leading contextual advertising services, to Google for $140 million. This acquisition will give Google a foothold in the growing Russian market as Begun has over 40,000 advertisers and a partner network of over 143,000 Russian language sites. Mark Opzoomer, CEO of Rambler Media, said in a press release, "Begun is an excellent business which can become even stronger under Google's ownership. Google has the advertising technology and financial capacity to build upon Begun's established advertising network in Russia".
This is not the only deal Google have struck with Rambler to extend their Russian operation, it was also announced that an agreement was made for the use of Google search technology on www.rambler.ru in addition to using Google's own AdSense technology to provide advertising. Mohammad Gawdat, Managing Director Emerging Markets at Google said, "This agreement illustrates our commitment to investing in Russia, where online advertising is currently experiencing rapid growth."
Despite lower than expect profits this quarter, Google's advertising revenue has held up, this combined with the growth in Russia makes this acquisition an obvious choice for Google.
