DLA Piper advises VEON on acquisition of Russian adtech company OTM

DLA Piper has advised VEON, a leading global provider of connectivity and internet services, on the acquisition of a majority stake in OTM, a technology platform for the automation and planning of online advertising purchases in Russia.

VEON’s investment in OTM will significantly strengthen Beeline’s position in the adtech market and enable VEON to expand OTM’s operations into other markets served by VEON’s mobile operators. The acquisition builds on VEON’s ongoing transformation into a digital operator.

OTM is one of the largest independent adtech players in Russia, both in terms of revenue and volume of online ad inventories managed by its platforms. Since its inception in 2010, the OTM platform has become one of the largest companies in the Russian adtech market. They have partnered with nearly all major ad agencies in the country and offer a variety of award-winning programmatic products. OTM will remain a separate operating company managed by its current management team as part of the VEON Group, playing an important role in growing its adtech business.

The firm’s Corporate team was led by partners Steffen Kaufmann (Moscow) and Ben Forgiel-Jenkins (London), assisted by senior associate Alexander Kolmakov (London), legal director Mukhamed Evloev and associates Alexander Mysov and Danara Lidzhieva (Moscow). DLA Piper’s Litigation and Regulatory senior associate, Azamat Abdulmenov (Moscow), also advised on the transaction.