Megogo is shutting down its activities in Russia, CEO Viktor Chekanov told Vedomosti. The company, he said, had to take such a step due to the recall of the franchise by the "brand founders." Chekanov declined to comment further.

Megogo was founded in late 2011 by Ukrainian entrepreneur Vladimir Borovik. In 2012, the service began to work in Russia, Viktor Chekanov became the head of the Russian company. The legal entity of the video service in Russia, Megogo LLC, belongs to the Cypriot company Magavin Enterprises Limited. The owner of 99% of this legal entity through a chain of companies is the Cypriot Dimostenis Christomilas.

Megogo's business has been developing quite successfully in Russia all these years. The video service is one of the largest in the country: it occupied the fourth position with a market share of 7.4% in January - June 2021, according to the data of the research company TMT Consulting. The entire market in January - June 2021 amounted to 18.3 billion rubles. Market growth compared to the same period in 2020 was estimated by analysts at 40%.

The VEON Ltd holding, which owns the Russian telecom operator VimpelCom (Beeline brand), and the Gazprom Media holding were interested in buying Megogo in 2020-2021, interlocutors in these companies told Vedomosti. The asset was then valued at 9-10 billion rubles. But Gazprom Media eventually abandoned the idea of buying the asset because of its connection with business in Ukraine, two Vedomosti interlocutors in this holding know. VEON also eventually scrapped the idea of buying this business, but the reasons are unknown.

Megogo is the second Ukrainian-linked media company to cease operations in Russia, after the country’s leadership launched a military special operation in Ukraine on February 24. Earlier it was announced that TV channel Pyatnitsa (Friday!, part of Gazprom Media) ceased cooperation with the Ukrainian production TeenSpirit, which produces the popular in Russia Heads or Tails program.