China enters Russian cyberspace, buys into major Internet asset

[Kshasty]

China's largest Internet company, Tencent, has bought 10% of Digital Sky Technologies (DST), a leading Russian Internet investment firm, in a bid that may signify Chinese expansion into Russian cyberspace, business media reported on Tuesday.

The Chinese company has paid $300 million for the new share issue of DST, a major Internet company in the Russian-speaking and East European markets that operates the popular social networking website Odnoklassniki, and also Mail.ru, Astrum Online Entertainment and other assets, DST co-owner and general director Yury Milner told Vedomosti.

At this point, China views the transaction with DST, which also holds stakes in the Internet world leaders such as Facebook and Zynga, as a financial investment since it gives Tencent approximately 10.26% in the Russian company's capital and only 0.51% of the voting power, the paper said.

http://en.rian.ru/business/20100413/158555665.html