On Thursday, 10/23/08, Russia's FAS Anti-Trust authority REJECTED U.S.-based Google's (GOOG) $140 million deal to acquire Russian advertising firm Begun. Begun specializes in selling text-based advertisements on Russian language web sites. Google, currently the 2nd most popular search engine in Russia, signed its deal to acquire the company back in July.While the FAS formally cited Google's lack of transparency as the basis for DENIAL, some pontificators believe GEOPOLITICS played the determinant factor in the process and that Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin's voice drove the controversial decision. Per the below Forbes article, Mr. Putin is (surprise, surprise) 'reluctant to let the U.S. company dominate Russia as it does elsewhere'.
forbes.com/technology/2008/10/23/google-russia
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* According to Comscore, Google is currently the 2nd most popular search engine in Russia. Russian company Yandex LLC ranks as the #1 Search Engine and accounts for about half of the country's web searches. More specifically + according to a June 2008 Businessweek article, Yandex owned a 44% share in Russia vs. Google's 34% stake. Yandex was launched in 1997 and became profitable beginning in late 2002. During 2007 Yandex recorded full year sales of $167 million.
businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_27/b4091060426533
Data Courtesy: Forbes + Businessweek
Full Disclosure: I own shares of GOOG.
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