Facebook in $200m deal May 26, 2009 FACEBOOK chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said last night that Russian internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies (DST) had made a $200m (£126m) investment in the social networking site. DST will receive a 1.96 per cent stake in preferred stock, valuing the company at $10bn – $5bn less than when Microsoft bought its stake in 2007.
Gazprom swells stake in Sibir May 26, 2009 GAZPROM Neft, the oil arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom, yesterday moved a step closer to taking control of Sibir Energy, the oil firm embroiled in an investigation over loans to one of its major shareholders. Gazprom Neft launched a recommended cash offer at 500p a share for the rest of the outstanding shares in [...]
Russian firm invests $200m in Facebook May 26, 2009 THE queue of investors itching to cash-in on social networking site Facebook was long. But Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies (DST) pipped the competition to the post yesterday when Facebook, run by 24 year old Harvard drop-out Mark Zuckerberg, accepted a $200m (£126m) investment from the company, controlled by Yuri Milner. Milner’s company owns Russia’s largest [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 25, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMES OPINIONS SHIFT TOWARDS LONGER WORKING LIVESA majority of Britons now favour longer working lives if it means a more generous pension in retirement, a significant shift of opinion in the few years since the subject was raised by the Pensions Commission report in 2005. A Financial Times/Harris survey of 1,126 adults in Britain [...]
Higher oil prices push TNK-BP into black May 21, 2009 TNK-BP returned to profit in the first quarter, it said yesterday, while analysts predicted other Russian oil majors would follow as higher oil prices and a drop in export taxes reversed losses sustained last year. TNK-BP, half-owned by BP, posted a first-quarter net profit of $747m (£471m), down 58 per cent year-on-year, as lower crude [...]
Fiat confirms bid for Opel as GM splits up May 20, 2009 FIAT, one of the three bidders eyeing German carmaker Opel, confirmed it had submitted an offer for the General Motors’ (GM) owned firm ahead of yesterday’s deadline. Two other firms; Canadian-Austrian car parts group Magna and investment firm RHJ International have also entered formal bids for Opel, which ailing GM has put up for sale [...]
Russian banks may need 10bn as bad loans mount up, says central banker May 20, 2009 RUSSIAN banks could need a minimum of £10bn in extra capital this year to offset the damage done by rocketing levels of bad loans, one of the country’s top central bankers said yesterday. Alexei Simanovsky, who heads the Russian central bank’s supervision department, said stress testing had shown that non-performing loans would force banks to [...]
This naked model is the sign of a new Puritanism May 19, 2009 THE UK edition of Vogue has a naked woman on its front cover this month. Oddly, for a magazine that celebrates female fabulousness and glamour, this is only the second time that this has happened – the first was in 1995 when Kate Moss bared all. (Robbie Williams did too, when he cavorted with Gisele [...]
Oil production is up at LukOil May 18, 2009 RUSSIAN oil producer LukOil said yesterday its oil production hit 1.9m barrels per day for the first quarter, up 3.2 per cent from the same period last year. The news comes as the firm will have an opportunity to renew its contract for the West Qurna-2 oil field in southern Iraq, according to Ali Hussein [...]
OMV and MOL in Iraqi fuel deal May 17, 2009 Two European energy companies helping build a pipeline which will cut the continent’s dependence on Russian gas said yesterday they will team up with Mideast producers to feed the route with Iraqi fuel. In a consortium announced in the United Arab Emirates, Austria’s OMV AG and Hungary’s MOL Nyrt said they will each take a [...]