Google on Friday agreed to acquire Rambler Media-owned Zao Begun, an online advertising startup, for $140 million.
“This agreement means more Russian users, advertisers and partners will get better search results and more relevant advertising,” Google’s managing director of emerging markets, Mohammad Gawdat, said in a statement.
Zao Begun, a contextual advertising firm, is based in Russia. The company’s partner sites include more than 143,000 Russian sites.
The company said that search-related text-based Internet advertising across Russian sites climbed to $225 million in 2007 from $110 million in 2006.
Google shares declined $51.27, or 9.6 percent, to $482.17 in midday trading in reaction to the search giant’s earnings report Thursday.