Finance Geek

Is a Russian billionaire about to buy the world’s authority on billionaires?

Russian private equity firm Onexim — founded by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov — is rumored to be buying Forbes, according to Russian news reports translated by Yakov Sadchikov, CEO of Web search firm Quintura.

Sadchikov is Russian, so we assume his translation is accurate. But we have no idea how accurate the Russian publications are, or how far along they say the sale is.

Forbes’ holdings include Forbes magazine, Forbes.com, Investopedia, and a stake in RealClearPolitics. We assume the Forbes brothers’ real estate holdings and Highlander yacht wouldn’t be included in any sale.

How much would Forbes sell for? In August, 2006, private equity firm Elevation Partners bought a 40%-plus stake for a reported $250 million to $300 million, suggesting a valuation around $750 million.

Disclosure: I previously worked for Forbes.com.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Silicon Alley Insider. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.