It may seem odd that Yuri Milner's Moscow-based internet investment company, which this week paid $200m (£123.6m, €141.6m) for 2 per cent of social networking phenomenon Facebook, did not have its own website until last week.
But Mr Milner, whose Digital Sky Technologies has amassed $1bn worth of stakes in 30 companies across eastern Europe, finds that disclosures undercut his negotiating position. “Every time we wanted to buy something, they looked at our past deals and the price went up,” Mr Milner said during a series of interviews at a technology conference in Carlsbad, California.
Besides, everyone in the Russian internet industry already knows who Mr Milner is. The 47-year-old physicist-turned-banker backed the most popular Russian-language site in the country, Mail.ru, and funded the Russian equivalent of Classmates.com and Friends Reunited. He estimates that Digital Sky companies have about 40 per cent of the Russian market for internet display advertising.