Founder and CEO of Russia's largest social network, Pavel Durov, has sold his stake in VKontakte. Sources reported that Pavel sold his 12% stake to Ivan Tavrin, the CEO of Megafon. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. However, according to the people familiar with the situation, asset valuation was most likely to be estimated on the basis of VKontakte capitalization, which is between $3-4 billion. A source working for Alisher Usmanov said that an approximate value of the deal was $300-400 billion.
“What you own, sooner or later starts to own you,” Durov wrote on his own VKontakte page. ”Over the past several years I have been actively getting rid of [my] possessions, giving away and selling everything that I have had, starting from furniture and finishing companies.…To reach the ideal I needed to get rid of the biggest part of my property, the 12 percent stake in VKontakte. I am happy that not so long ago I reached this goal, having sold my stake in VKontakte to my friend Ivan Tavrin."
“I’m not going anywhere and will continue to watch over the quality of VKontakte,” Durov said as well, thus assuring internet users of further flawless performance of the social network. He touts it as the “best communication platform in Russia”.
Early in the year, VKontakte Vice President Ilya Perekopsky stepped down being succeeded by Dmitry Sergeyev, a former president of the Kommersant publishing house.
