Google purchased ZAO Begun from Rambler Media, the fourth-leading Russian internet portal, for $140 million. Rambler also agreed to outsource search and contextual advertising for Rambler.ru to Google.

Rambler owns 50.1 percent of ZAO Begun, with the other 49.9 percent owned by Bannatyne Limited. Rambler agreed to buy Bannatyne's shares and sell complete ownership to Google. Net gain from the sale is expected (pdf) to total $50 million for the Russian portal.

ZAO Begun is a six-year-old contextual ad firm. In the first four months of 2008, it drew $3.4 million in profits before taxes and minority interest. It is expected to add 40,000 Russian advertisers, and 143,000 partner sites, to Google's network.