Uzbek billionaire Usmanov leaves Mail.ru Group to join forces with Alibaba

BAKU. KAZINFORM USM holding of Alisher Usmanov, Russian entrepreneur and philanthropist of Uzbek origin, has transferred the control over the Mail.ru Group to the company's top managers, Uzbek media reported referring to the press service of Mail.ru Group, Trend reports.

Thus, USM is no longer the sole controlling party of the Mail.Ru Group, and none of the shareholders alone controls the company through MF Technologies.

Control over the holding's share in Mail.ru Group has been transferred to Boris Dobrodeev, the company's general director.

According to Usmanov, he has been preparing this move for several years. He said that "high-tech companies should be led by younger generations".

Usmanov added that he was leaving the management of the company "with a light heart."

He also said he plans to announce a charity program at the end of 2018 in the sphere of sports, culture and assistance to children.

He also intends to build the largest e-commerce company in Europe jointly with Alibaba and oust Amazon and eBay.

The main business of Mail.Ru Group is the sale of advertisements through the company's services (Mail.Ru, VKontakte and Odnoklassniki social networks).