Updated 3:09 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 16 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Internet company Mail.ru Group said Thursday it had acquired a 48.01-percent stake in Russia’s most popular social networking site Vkontakte.
The deal worth $1.47 billion was completed on September 16.
Mail.ru Group, which already owned almost 52 percent of Vkontakte, bought the remaining shares from Blesmir Development Ltd and Palagon Ltd.
Taking into account the previous investments, Mail.ru's total acquisition cost for Vkontakte amounts to $2.07 billion.
Launched in October 2006, Vkontakte or VK is the largest Russian social networking service with about 240 million registered accounts. Currently, VK is ranked 23 in Alexa's global Top 500 sites ranking, where it is the second most popular Russian website after Yandex.
