Pioneer Blog Site Popular in Russia Sold

A free blog site that pioneered personal web publishing among Russia’s intellectuals has been sold to a pair of entrepreneurs who promise to add cash and expand it globally, Reuters reports. Six Apart said it sold LiveJournal, which claims 14.3 million blog accounts and 20 million visitors a month—in the US, largely among teenage girls—to SUP. Terms were not disclosed.

SUP, backed by a Russian investor, will operate the site from San Francisco as LiveJournal Inc. Six Apart will continue to supply advertising and other services. LiveJournal, the fourth-most-popular US blogging service, began in 1999 as a way for a college student to keep in touch with his friends. Six Apart bought it in 2005. (More blogging stories.)