Naspers
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| Public company | |
| Traded as | JSE: NPN |
| Industry | Ecommerce, Internet, Media |
| Genre | Media |
| Founded | 12 May 1915 |
| Headquarters | Cape Town, South Africa |
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Area served
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Global |
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Key people
|
Bob van Dijk (CEO) |
| Revenue |
 R73.1 Billion (FY 2015)
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R1.6 Billion (FY 2015)
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| Website | www.naspers.com |
Naspers is a broad-based multinational internet and media group, offering services in more than 130 countries. Its principal operations are in ecommerce (i.e. classifieds, online retail, marketplaces, online comparison shopping, payments and online services), video entertainment and print. With a market capitalisation of over $66 billion it is the largest company in Africa and the 7th largest Internet company in the world.
Major brands owned by Naspers include:
It also has minority investments in listed, integrated social-network platforms Tencent (SEHK 0700) and Mail.ru (LSE: MAIL).
Naspers was founded in 1915, by Afrikaner Nasionale Pers (National Press) as a newspaper and magazine publisher and printer. It decided by a group of prominent Afrikaners in December 1914 at Stellenbosch to form a publishing company that would spread a nationalistic Afrikaner message. It was founded by J.B.M. Hertzog who also founded the National Party, the previous year in 1914. Jannie Marais, a prominent Stellenbosch farmer purchased a quarter of the 20,000 £1 shares in the new company. Naspers first published the Afrikaans language daily Die Burger in June 1915 which was followed by its first magazine Die Huisgenoot in 1916.
In 1918 the company added book publishing to their portfolio which made it one of the most significant media hubs in Africa at the time. In 1985 the company launched the pay-TV system M-Net for the first time in the region which elevated the company's reputation and assisted to grow into one of the largest media house's in the world. Nasionale Pers officially changed its name to the currently used 'Naspers' in 1998.
Since 1994, the company has been listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange () in South Africa and has designated to be part of the Top 10 index over the past number of years. They also have a Level I American Depository Receipt programme (ADR programme) listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and trade on an over-the-counter (OTC) basis. International investors account for around 50% of their shareholder base.
The investment in Tencent has skyrocketed the Naspers stock 500% since 2010 due to the success of Tencent and has labelled the company the most valuable in Africa (May 2015) with a market cap of almost USD$66 billion. A unit of international media group Naspers, namely its subsidiary Myriad International Holdings owns a 28.7% stake in Digital Sky Technologies (DST), the Russian firm behind investments in notable Internet companies like Facebook, Groupon and Zynga. China’s Tencent also made a strategic investment (to the tune of $300 million) in DST, 35% of Tencent being owned by Naspers.
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Wikipedia