Derk Sauer, chairman of Sanoma Independent Media's supervisory board and president of Onexim media division RBC, denied a newspaper report Tuesday that Onexim was seeking a stake in Vedomosti.
Kommersant reported that Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Group had made an offer to Sanoma Independent Media, or SIM, to swap its interior-design magazines for a stake in the business newspaper.
RBC "made no proposals," Sauer told The Moscow Times, which is published by SIM. "There are no discussions or negotiations ongoing [for] Vedomosti."
Citing unidentified sources,
Business News Media is co-owned equally by SIM, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Pearson, the publisher of the Financial Times.
Sauer confirmed Kommersant's information that RBC was looking to sell the Salon Press unit.
"RBC did invite SIM to take part in a bidding process currently ongoing to sell Salon Magazine, but … SIM is not participating in this process," Sauer said.
RBC general director Sergei Lavrukhin was cited by Kommersant as saying that two parties were interested in buying Salon Press and that SIM wasn't one of them.
In November, Sauer was appointed
Those hires followed a public tussle this fall between the longtime SIM executives and its Finnish parent company, Sanoma.
The Netherlands-born Sauer founded Independent Media in 1992 and sold the company to Finland's Sanoma media group in 2005. Myasnikova succeeded him as SIM's CEO in 2007.
Myasnikova resigned from SIM in September. At the time,
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.