Gazprom-media to buy "Russian YouTube" for $5m
Ivan Silvestrov, Webplanet.ru
Gazprom-media is the most possible buyer of Russian videosharing site
RuTube. According to RuTube owners they recieved few offers, one more from Mangrove Capital Partners, but they treat Gazprom's negotiations as most serious. Oleg Volobuev and Mikhail Paulkin, who launched RuTube in Nov,2006, are considering offers from $5-10 mln. Gazprom-media, which owns Kommersant.ru and Gazeta.ru, was a bit too slow entering web market, so it could be eager to overpay for RuTube, analysts suggest. Company's CEO Nikolai Senkevich said, they are interested in 90% share of the project. Next year Gazprom-media plans to spend $100 mln on purchases on the web.