Web Media Holding (WebMediaGroup)

Web Media Holding is a Russian company that combines Internet projects in the field of information and entertainment. She worked from January 2007 to 2014.

History

2018: Gazprombank received losses, closed or sold assets received from WebMediaGroup

Gazprombank's investments in the development of Internet assets ended in lawsuits. By 2018, the closed online store Dostavka.ru owed the bank 316 million rubles, the online cinema Zoomby.ru, which the bank transferred to Gazprom-Media - 210 million rubles. The remaining assets, which were part of Sergey Kalugin's WebMediaGroup, were sold to unnamed buyers.

As for the websites Menu.ru, Photosight.ru and Inout.ru, Weekend.ru, Credit.ru, Bank.ru and Medsputnik.ru, they "were sold by Gazprom media holding earlier", the representative of holding Irina Osadchaya said in February, 2018, without having specified who bought them.

Of all the assets of the former WebMediaGroup, Menu.ru and Photosight.ru continue to work at that time, the pages of the rest are "in development." A Kommersant source heard that, in particular, the Menu.ru was sold more than a year ago for $4 million.

"If you can still find some logic with abandoned non-core assets, then such domains as Credit.ru and Bank.ru are able to bring customers to the bank even with a simple redirect, not to mention even an inexpensive site," wonders domain investor Pavel Gross-Dneprov. "These are very powerful domains, the real price of which is 20-30 million rubles. for each and even more. But here they are simply idle, most likely due to bureaucracy and the inability of management to take the initiative and develop these projects. "

2013: Company moves from Sergey Kalugin to Gazprombank

In May 2013, WebMediaGroup raised $10 million from the Leader-Innovation fund (shareholders - and Russian venture capital firm Gazprombank "Sibur holding") and Gazprombank the founders of the holding. Kalugin stated that he did not take part in this round.

In October 2013, it became known that Rostelecom President Sergei Kalugin is completely withdrawing from the capital of the WebMediaGroup media holding, of which he is co-founder, Interfax reported and confirmed by WebMediaGroup representative Maria Baghdasaryan. The deal will close in November 2013, she said. She declined to disclose other details, including the size of the package and the buyer. Later it became known that Gazprombank was the buyer. According to Interfax, Kalugin owned 25% of the company. According to him, the share in WebMediaGroup is also sold by its former managing director Maria Florentyeva, who is now the vice president of Rostelecom. Baghdasaryan did not comment on this.

Kalugin explained the sale by his desire to avoid possible suspicions of a conflict of interest, because Rostelecom is also developing a media business - based on a video service Zabava.ru. Meanwhile, the business model Zabava.ru causes complaints from Kalugin, two former Rostelecom managers know. According to them, he believes that instead of selling content, an advertising model should be developed, according to which the Zoomby.ru is just working - the main media asset of WebMediaGroup. In early October 2013, Kalugin told Kommersant that it would be advisable for Rostelecom to buy a content aggregator with its own library of rights - a video service like ivi.ru.

A source in the Internet company heard that Zoomby shareholders have long been looking for a buyer: the current shareholders, Gazprombank and VGTRK, were not recently ready to leave the project or invest in it additionally, so the company was looking for a new strategic investor. The former manager of Rostelecom knows that the owners of Zoomby were looking for an investor and, in particular, came to Rambler. The representative of "Rambler" does not comment on this.

The buyer of Kalugin's share in WebMediaGroup may be structures associated with Yuri Kovalchuk, which already own shares in WebMediaGroup: Gazprombank or Leader-Innovation, were immediately assumed by former Rostelecom managers and the owner of a competitor Zoomby.ru. It will be logical if in the end the asset will be in Rostelecom, they say: in the operator's new strategy, the emphasis will be on the development of fixed broadband Internet access and content.

When Kalugin came to work at Rostelecom, the issue of conflict of interest was separately negotiated with him, an official of one of the relevant departments knows. Therefore, WebMediaGroup or Zoomby.ru is unlikely to be sold to Rostelecom, even through an intermediary. Indeed, Rostelecom has never worked with WebMediaGroup, says former Rostelecom^[1] manager^[1].

Among the assets at this time were also Medsputnik.ru Dostavka.ru.

2009: Sergey Kalugin owns a controlling stake in the company

Kalugin Sergey Borisovich - owns a controlling stake and is the general director. Mr. Kalugin does not name the remaining co-owners of the holding, as well as the amount spent on the acquisition of assets on the Internet, adding that in total the amount of investments "is much higher than $10 million." The owners of the holding own at least a controlling stake in all projects that it combines. Mr. Kalugin plans to monetize the services of Web-Media Holding through contextual advertising and subscription fees. The company's assets at this time included:

• Menu.ru
• Inout.ru
• Weekend.ru
• Credit.ru
• Bank.ru
• Tinza! - social network for adolescents (formerly Looky.ru)
• Photosight.ru

The total audience of projects is about 150 thousand visitors per week.

Notes