Rambler buys two largest Russian women's sites

Photo: Valery Melnikov

Rambler & Co will soon become the actual owner of the two largest Internet resources in Russia: Wmj.ru and Passion.ru. As a seller of sites is the investment company Direct Group of the French businessman Pascal Clement. Apparently, the sale of resources is carried out to implement the law on the restriction of foreign capital in the Russian media, writes Kommersant. The fact that both sites are becoming part of the Rambler & Co Internet holding company was announced at a conference held last week in Bruges. Now, according to representatives of Rambler & Co, the deal has been agreed, but has not yet been closed. “The purchase of women's resources will allow us to attract advertisers from the Lux and FMCG segments,” said Sofya Ivanova, spokeswoman for Rambler & Co.

Now Wmj.ru (Woman Journal) and Passion.ru ("Women's Passion") belong to Milanor LLC. This company, in turn, is owned by Afenidako Holdings, which is the owner of Kupibonus.ru LLC (now this company is in the process of liquidation). The deal with Rambler & Co, unfortunately, was not disclosed.

Valuation of resources is a rather complicated matter, because for an objective assessment it is necessary to use revenue and EBITDA indicators, says TMT Investments Artem Inyutin. In his opinion, the total cost of resources is several million rubles.

Rambler & Co is now planning to “conquer and strengthen its position in new audience segments”, and the purchase of women's sites is just an attempt to reach a new audience and new advertisers.