Google Acquiring Ukrainian Bigmir)net?

The acquisition policy of Google is shady at best. Until the deal is resolved, there's no confirmation of talks, no inside sources leaking information of any nature, it's basically no fun to poke around in the dark whenever a rumor appears. Nevertheless, the situation is a haven for those with nothing better to do than speculate and create false scenarios. That would be the press.

The latest rumor being churned is related to the Mountain View based company taking interest in Ukrainian web portal bigmir)net, and it came from local sources. That's not really an indication to whether it is true or not, but at least it's something of substance to work with. The site has over 2.5 million users monthly and more important, it is the most popular site in the country, according to Alexa.

After having lost the opportunity to have a stake in Mail.ru last year, Google would not want to lose this opportunity, especially as there's a search engine it can replace (Russian Yandex is currently powering its search results). The recent investing into Ukrainian online services that the former Soviet country private equity funds started must have sparked Google's interest, but the online advertising being spent there, reaching almost $12 million in 2007, might be the deciding factor if the deal is going to go through.

The rumored transaction would cost the Mountain View based company a mere $100 million and it would secure the market leading position in Ukraine, a country that has 7.5 million Internet users. 2006 brought Bigmir-Internet, the current owner of the web portal, some $15 million.

Quintura reports that Anil Hansjee, Google's Head of Corporate Development for Europe, Middle East and Africa still regrets having missed last year's opportunity to acquire Mail.ru and its 30 million monthly visitors.