VK, Rostelecom, Rosatom and MTS are interested in purchasing domestic operating system developers

VK, Rostelecom, Rosatom and MTS are interested in purchasing domestic operating system developers. According to Kommersant, potential acquisitions include Basalt SPO, Red Soft, Astra Group of Companies and STC IT ROSA. Market participants attribute the activity of investors to the growing demand for Russian solutions and the desire of the largest holdings to “build their own ecosystems of IT products.” The transition of developers under the influence of large companies will allow them to speed up product development through new funding, experts say.

The largest Russian IT companies are discussing the purchase of Russian operating system (OS) developers, three top managers in the IT market told Kommersant. Among the interested companies they mentioned MTS, VK, Rostelecom and Rosatom. According to Kommersant’s interlocutors, negotiations are underway with the companies Basalt SPO, Astra, Red Soft and STC IT ROSA. A Kommersant source among OS developers confirmed the fact of negotiations on the sale of the company to a large IT organization, without disclosing details.

Kommersant’s interlocutor explained that large holdings “are creating their own ecosystems of IT products, which will be incomplete without an OS in the portfolio.” VK, Rosatom, MTS, Basalt SPO, Astra, STC IT ROSA and Red Soft declined to comment. Rostelecom reported that the company’s policy does not allow discussing transactions before they are completed. The operator’s representative emphasized that the company’s portfolio already includes a developer of infrastructure and system software (Rostelecom owns the Aurora mobile OS).

The founder of the Strigo Capital venture fund, Dmitry Komissarov, also knows about the interest of large IT companies (among them he named VK and MTS) in purchasing OS developers; among the “obvious candidates for sale” he named Basalt Open Source Software and Red Soft. “For an OS developer, an acquisition by a large holding will only be a plus: he gets access to financing,” the expert believes. According to Mr. Komissarov, due to the growing revenue of developers, the cost of Basalt SPO could be 5-8 billion rubles, Red Software – 9-12 billion rubles.

After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine and the departure of foreign software developers, including Microsoft, from the Russian market, domestic developers significantly increased their revenue due to accelerated import substitution. (see “Kommersant” dated January 20, 2023).

According to SPARK-Interfax, Red Soft LLC is 25.5% owned by Sergei Zotov, another 25.5% by Anatoly Mitroshin, 23.96% by Vyacheslav Komlev, 12.52% by Kirill Veselkin, and 6.26% – Alexey Koptev and Rustam Rustamov. LLC revenue in 2022 increased by 244%, to 2 billion rubles, net profit – by 169%, to 218 million rubles.

The main beneficiary (73%) of Basalt SPO LLC is Financial Support Agency LLC; this company is divided (33.33%) between Ekaterina Petrova, Grigory Sizonenko and Vladimir Chepko. LLC revenue for 2022 increased by 193%, to 987 million rubles, net profit doubled, to 481 million rubles.

The Astra Group held an IPO in October 2023: the owners (before the placement, 76.19% of the company’s shares belonged to Denis Frolov, 19.05% to Ilya Sivtsev, another 4.76% was a quasi-treasury stake) sold 5% of the shares for 3. 5 billion rubles As of the evening of March 25, the company’s capitalization amounted to 125 billion rubles.

The owners of JSC STC IT ROSA are hidden. The company’s revenue in 2022 almost doubled, to 88.4 million rubles, the company’s net profit amounted to 487 thousand rubles.

The head of NP Russoft, Valentin Makarov, connects the interest of large Russian IT holdings in OS developers with import substitution, the emergence of new obligations for critical information infrastructure (CII) to switch to Russian solutions, as well as with companies’ plans to create their own electronics. Last week, the Ministry of Digital Development submitted to the State Duma a bill on the transition of CII subjects to domestic software and radio-electronic products (see Kommersant of March 21).

“Now many organizations are planning to localize the production of electronics, from laptops to servers, add Russian software there and supply them to state-owned companies in the form of software and hardware systems,” Mr. Makarov clarified.

Kommersant’s interlocutor among electronics manufacturers agrees that the acquisition of OS by large holdings “looks like a logical step,” since companies want to start producing and supplying software and hardware systems to the public sector. To do this, explains Kommersant’s source, you need to enter the register of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which involves ensuring compatibility with the domestic OS.

Timofey Kornev