MOSCOW, November 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov, who is linked to state-run Gazprom, has offered $30 million for the Internet publication Gazeta.ru in a bid to expand his media assets, a source said Friday.
Analysts said the sum was too high because the publishing house Secret Firmy, which owns the site, paid $7-10 million for the asset in 2005.
Usmanov's representatives refused to comment. "We do not comment on this subject," a spokesman for the billionaire said.
Sources at Gazeta.ru said: "There are no external or internal signs that Gazeta.ru is selling."
The source in the media also said that Usmanov had offered $45-50 million for the entire publishing house, which, apart from Gazeta.ru, includes three weeklies.
Usmanov, an Uzbek-born Russian businessman and head of a Gazprom subsidiary, already owns the Kommersant publishing house.
He bought Kommersant, a harsh government critic, from a Georgian tycoon linked to Russia's fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky.
Usmanov, who is also a metals magnate, has recently acquired a 50% stake in the sports channel 7TV and is said to be seeking to create a media empire.
