Ownership
Initially, founder and CEO Pavel Durov owned 20% of shares (although he had majority voting power through proxy votes), and a trio of Russian-Israeli investors Yitzchak Mirilashvili, his father Mikhael Mirilashvili, and Lev Leviev[29] owned 60%, 10%, and 10% respectively.[30]
In 2007, Digital Sky Technologies, an investment company managed by Yuri Milner, acquired a total of 24.99% of the shares from shareholders, investing $16.3 million.[13] In preparation for the IPO in September 2010, DST separated international and Russian assets: the former formed the DST Global fund, while the latter, including VKontakte and rival social network Odnoklassniki, were merged into Mail.ru Group. Mail.ru Group used part of the money to acquire 7.5% of the social network for $112.5 million at a valuation of the entire project of 1.5 billion dollars. After exercising a 7.5% option in July 2011 for $111.7 million, Mail.ru Group accumulated a 39.99% stake in VKontakte.[31][32][33]
The head of Mail.ru Group, Dmitry Grishin, voiced the company's intention to gain 100% control over VKontakte. MRG was discussing with shareholders to buy out shares from the valuation of the entire company in $2-3 billion. In the summer of 2011, Mirilashvili and Leviev were ready to accept in payment owned by Mail.ru Group shares of Facebook, Groupon, and Zynga, but the deal failed due to Durov's unwillingness to sell a stake on MRG terms. Later, the co-founders considered VKontakte's IPO as an alternative. In March 2012, Durov "accidentally" became plugged into the negotiations where Mirilashvili and Leviev discussed selling their stakes directly to Mail.ru Group's main investor, Alisher Usmanov. On the same day, Durov deleted the pages of the first co-investors, stopped contacting them, and soon announced that VKontakte would postpone its IPO indefinitely.[31][34]
On 29 May 2012, Mail.ru Group announced its decision to yield control of the company to Durov by offering him the voting rights on its shares. Combined with Durov's personal 12% stake, this gave him 52% of the votes.[35][36]
In April 2013, the Mirilashvili family sold its 40% share in VK to United Capital Partners for $1.12 billion,[37][38] while Lev Leviev sold his 8% share in the same deal, giving United Capital Partners 48% ownership. In January 2014, VK's founder Pavel Durov sold his 12% stake in the company to Ivan Tavrin, the CEO of MegaFon, which is controlled by Alisher Usmanov. Following the deal, Usmanov and his allies controlled around 52% of the company.[39] Shortly thereafter, the CEO of Megafon, sold his 12% stake to Mail.ru, thus allowing Mail.ru to consolidate its controlling stake of 52% in VK.[40]
On 1 April 2014, Durov submitted his resignation to the board; at first, due to the fact the company confirmed he had resigned, it was believed to be related to the Russo-Ukrainian War which began in the previous February.[41] However, Durov himself claimed it was an April Fool's Joke on 3 April 2014.[42][43] On 21 April 2014, Durov was dismissed as CEO, claiming he failed to withdraw his letter of resignation a month earlier.[44] Durov then claimed the company had been effectively taken over by Vladimir Putin's political faction,[44] suggesting his dismissal was the result of both his refusal to hand over personal details of users to federal law enforcement and his refusal to hand over the personal details of people who were members of a VKontakte group dedicated to the Euromaidan protest movement.[44] Durov then left Russia and stated that he had "no plans to go back" and that "the country is incompatible with Internet business at the moment".[45]
On 16 September 2014, the Mail.ru group bought the remaining 48% stake of VK from United Capital Partners (UCP)[46] for $1.5 billion,[46] thus becoming the sole proprietor of the social network.[47]
In December 2021, Russian state-owned bank Gazprombank and insurance company Sogaz bought out 57.3% of VK shares, thus becoming the holders of the company's controlling interest.[48][49]
