Rambler to spend USD 23 mln on Internet projects

The company Rambler Media has finalized a deal to transfer its television channel Rambler-TV to the company Osgora Productions Ltd, an affiliate of the Prof-Media holding, which recently acquired a stake in Rambler Media itself. Rambler Media representatives have said that $23 million in proceeds from the sale of the television channel will be used to buy profitable projects that will supplement the key Internet services of Rambler. It's a somewhat bewildering statement, since in terms of the number of its Internet service offers Rambler goes neck and neck with the two other market leaders – Mail.ru and Yandex, while prices for internet projects in the Russian segment of the Internet have soared to a point where it may not be always wise to buy them. In all likelihood, the cash infusion is not likely to help the Internet holding to increase its market presence. Alternatively, this could be accomplished by tweaking with the company's management and development strategy. Yet market participants believe that Prof-Media is not usually inclined to change the management of the companies it acquires.