Rambler has been online since 1996. In 2005 the Rambler Media Group went public, and was bought by Prof-Media in 2006.[1]
On 18 July 2008 it was announced that Google was to acquire Begun, part of Rambler Media and one of the biggest Russian contextual advertising services for $140 million, but the deal was blocked by Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service.[2][3]
The main competitors of Rambler in the Russian market are Yandex and Mail.ru. As of July 2013, Rambler ranked 11th in popularity among Russian sites.[4]
In September 2016 it was reported that the site was breached in February 2012. LeakedSource received a dump of the user database at the time that included usernames, passwords, and ICQ instant messaging accounts for over 98 million users. It was revealed that the Rambler.ru database stored user passwords in plaintext — meaning that whoever breached the database instantly had access to the e-mail accounts of all of its users.[5][6]
In April 2019, Sberbank, the Kremlin’s largest lender, took a stake in Rambler Media Group, in a deal organised by Russian oligarch Alexander Mamut.[7] In October 2020, Sber, the non-banking wing of Sberbank took full control of the group when it acquired Mamut's 45% stake.[8]
