Mail.ru

Mail.ru is the largest free e-mail service of the Runet. The business was originally owned by Port.ru, a company founded in 1998 by Eugene Goland, Michael Zaitsev and Alexey Krivenkov as spin-off from DataArt. It received an initial investment of USD 1 million from the well-known investor (and fencing champion) James Melcher.

The Mail.ru business expanded rapidly to reach the No. 1 market position in Russia by 2000. Attempts to fund the company’s expansion in 2000-2001 were thwarted by the collapse of the technology bubble and Mail.ru was forced to seek merger partners.

In 2001, Yuri Milner, who was managing NetBridge (the owner of less popular internet brands) persuaded the well-known entrepreneur Igor Linshits to back a merger of the Mail.ru business with NetBridge. Igor Linshits subsequently took an active role in the development of the Mail.ru business. In connection with the merger, Milner became Mail.ru CEO.

The company started to operate under its present name on 16 October 2001. Before that time its brand name was owned by Port.ru. It is headed by Dmitry Grishin. As of 2009, its global Alexa rating is 29.

In 2003, Milner resigned from Mail.ru and subsequently set up another internet venture, Digital Sky Technologies (DST). In 2006, Igor Linshits sold his stake in Mail.ru to Tiger Fund and Milner's DST for more than $100 million. In September 2010, DST changed its name to Mail.ru Group. Dmitry Grishin became one of the Mail.ru Group co-founders.

In October 2010, Mail.ru announced plans for an IPO via the London stock market listing of a subsidiary – also called Mail.ru – worth more than $5bn. The IPO will offer a stake of about 17% of the subsidiary. The subsidiary will include about a quarter of the group’s shareholding in Facebook, stakes in Russia’s two biggest social networking sites and Mail.ru. The company has hired Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and VTB Capital to run the listing.

In March 2012, Yuri Milner has stepped down from the role of Chairman of Mail.ru and from the Board of Directors. Dmitry Grishin was elected to the Board of Directors and appointed as Chairman of the Board while retaining his CEO position. There were no other changes to management or to the Board.