It was only last week we were talking about how the DST-Naspers-Tencent nexus is driving online media investment in Russia, China, eastern Europe and, increasingly, the Valley. Now there’s some further investment activity between two of the three…

Digital Sky Technologies, Naspers and Tencent are amongst the hottest digital media investment actors in Russia, South Africa and China. And now they’re moving in on western markets, starting with eastern Europe and including stakes in Facebook, Zynga and Groupon.

An arm of the U.S Treasury is looking into concerns about AOL’s pending $187.5 million sale of instant messaging service ICQ to Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies, due to fears that criminal investigations could be compromised, the FT reports (registration req.). ICQ, which was founded and run from Israel,…

As expected, Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies says it has reached an agreement with AOL (NYSE: AOL) to buy its instant messaging service ICQ for $187.5 million. DST, which has investment in Facebook and Zynga; South African media giant Naspers, which holds a 30 percent stake in China’s Tencent,…

Digital Sky Technologies, which has been busily investing hundreds of millions in American social media firms in recent months, now has a new backer of its own. Tencent, the big Chinese internet company, is investing $300 million in DST in exchange for a 10.26 percent stake; Tencent is also getting…

Two months after bids started ramping up for AOL’s instant messaging service ICQ came rushing in, it looks like the competition to own it is down to three companies, Reuters reports, citing Vedomosti, a Russian business news outlet. As Rafat reported in February, two of the possible bidders included Russian…

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And, with Hulu yet to launch services outside its home market of the U.S., it’s no surprise, perhaps, that there are some sites bearing an uncanny resemblance to Hulu launching in other markets. The latest is ivi.ru, a Russian portal that…

The race to buy IM service ICQ from AOL (NYSE: AOL) is heating up. Last week came the news about some possible buyers: Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies, which has investment in Facebook and Zynga; South African media giant Naspers, which holds a 30 percent stake in China’s Tencent;…

A Russian search engine is going after Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and others it says are breaching its patent on a search technique. Quintura has been operating a visual search engine interface, which shows results in a relational, contextual cloud format, since 2005 and was last year awarded the latest of…

South Africa’s Naspers and Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies (DST) are in talks to pool their Polish social networks Gadu-Gadu and Nasza-klasa.pl, according to Russian business daily Kommersant, citing “a source close to the deal”. Naspers, which owns Gadu-Gadu outright, is reportedly doing due diligence on Forticom, the DST-owned social network…

Some more VC activity in Russia’s gaming industry: Almaz Capital Russia Fund is picking up a 23 percent stake in Alawar Entertainment, the country’s leading casual games developer, for $3 million. Almaz plans to extend Alawar’s operations and international reach. The moves follows another investment in Russian games less than…

Nikita Sherman marked out a reputation for himself as someone who can get digital content to pay when he was in charge of Odnoklassniki.ru, the Russian Facebook-inspired site that is now one of the most popular social media destinations in the country, with 45 million users. In contrast to, well,…

We reported back in November that Russian media investment firm Profmedia wanted to up its stake in top national portal and search site Rambler ahead of delisting the site from London’s AIM market. Sure enough, Profmedia last week spent $12 million to increase its holding from 55.4 percent to 88.03…

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) wants a bigger piece of the Russian search market. Beginning in January, the company will become the default search engine on top Russian portal Mail.ru, according to a statement Mail.Ru put out today (Via TechCrunch). The statement confirmed rumors of an agreement, which first surfaced earlier this…

Now that AOL (NYSE: AOL) CEO Tim Armstrong has said the most he’ll do with MapQuest is an operational partnership, not a sale, it looks like instant messaging service ICQ could be at the top of the sell list—and, according to multiple reports, Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies (DST) is interested.…

Russian online games is a sector investors should be keeping a close eye on… South African media conglomerate Naspers has been granted anti-trust permission to buy between 38 percent and 100 percent of Russian online games developer Astrum Online Entertainment from majority shareholder Digital Sky Technologies. As Kommersant (via Yakov)…

Number-one Russian internet site and search engine Yandex is selling a nine percent stake to three private equity funds for about $100 million, valuing the firm at $1.1 billion, reports Russia’s Vedomosti paper (via Yakov), citing an investment banker. Yandex has not yet confirmed the report to us.

Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the Russian firm that recently paid $200 million for a two percent stake in Facebook, is playing puppet-master yet again. It’s merging Mail.ru, one of Russia’s most popular online portals, with massively-multiplayer online (MMO) game developer Astrum Online Entertainment, according to Vedomosti (via Quintura). It is…

Facebook may not be rushing to go public, but Digital Sky Technologies, the Russian investment fund that just paid $200 million for 1.96 percent of the social network, does plan to float. CEO, co-founder and former Mail.ru chief Yuri Milner tells Slon.ru (via Yakov): “Our model ... is to exit…