Company History 1915 - 2011

 

 

  

1915  - Naspers forerunner De Nationale Pers founded. First edition of Die Burger, a daily, published
on 26 July.
1916  - Introduction of monthly magazine Huisgenoot.
1918  - Founding of De Burger Boekhandel and De Burger Leeskring.
1919  - Publication of first English book, Republicans and Sinners.
1922  - Publication of first book in the vernacular (Xhosa).
1925  - Die Volksblad became a daily.
1937  - Introduction of Oosterlig, a daily.
1950  - Nasionale Boekhandel founded.
1959  - Became involved in general publishing market through the acquisition of Tafelberg Uitgewers.
1963  - Educational publisher Nasou founded.
1965  - First edition of English women's magazine Fairlady.
1970  - Sunday papers Beeld and Dagbreek amalgamated, becoming Sunday newspaper Rapport.
   - Educational publisher Via Afrika came into being.
1974  - First daily edition of Beeld published in Johannesburg.
1975  - Founding of Nasionale Nuusdistrubeerders, a distribution network for publications.
1978  - Human & Rousseau became a Naspers subsidiary.
1979  - Afrikaans book club Leserskring founded.
1982  - English book club Leisure Hour (now Leisure Books) founded.
1984  - Acquisition of Drum Publications, with publications consisting of City Press, Drum and True Love
& Family.
   - Acquisition of a 50% interest in Jane Raphaely & Associates.
1985  - Pay–television service M-Net initiated.
   - Financial magazine Finansies & Tegniek introduced
1986  - Take-over of publishing company JL Van Schaik.
1987  - Introduction of English family magazine You.
   - Naspers book stores changed to Van Schaik Boekhandel.
1988  - Became involved in distance learning through the take-over of distance learning colleges Lyceum
and Success.
1989  - City Press became a fully-fledged Sunday newspaper.
1990  - M-Net listed on the JSE Securities exchange South Africa ("JSE").
1991  - Acquisition of Jonathan Ball Publishers.
1992  - M-Net expands operations into Africa.
1993  - Separation of M-Net and MultiChoice, both now trading on the JSE as a linked unit.
   - Expansion of MultiChoice into Europe.
   - Oosterlig incorporated with Die Burger.
1994  - Naspers listed on JSE on 12 September.
   - Community newspaper City Vision introduced.
1995  - Naspers became founder and main sponsor of Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK).
   - Introduction of digital satellite transmissions in Africa, Europe and Asia.
   - Introduction of Greek TV platform, NetMed.
   - Final separation of M-Net and MultiChoice with the delinking of the companies' shares trading
on the JSE.
1996  - MultiChoice renamed MIH Holdings Limited.
   - MIH subsidiary MultiChoice Africa founded.
   - Amalgamation of educational publishers Nasou and Via Afrika.
   - 50% interest acquired in Touchline Media.
1997  - MIH investment in Thailand pay–television platform UBC.
   - South African Internet business (MWEB) initiated.
   - MIH investment in OpenTV, an interactive technology company.
   - New magazine printing-house completed.
1998  - Group name changed to Naspers.
   - Naspers internet business commences with web pages: 24.com, Kalahari.net, BFA.net,
fin24.com and news24.com.
1999  - OpenTV ownership increased to 80%.
   - MIHL initial public offer on Nasdaq and Amsterdam stock exchange.
   - Completion of new northern office complex MediaPark in Johannesburg.
   - Major upgrading of newspaper printing-houses.
   - Introduction of M-Web Thailand.
   - Introduction of digital pay–television in Greece, Nova.
   - 50% interest in religious publishing and retail group Lux Verbi/Sybel Media.
   - M-Net/SuperSport listed on the Nigerian stock exchange.
2000  - Reorganisation of Naspers into a holding company with five subsidiaries: MIH Holdings,
MWEB, Media24, Nasboek and Educor.
   - Media24 printing operations regrouped into Paarl Media.
   - Sunday newspapers City Press and Rapport amalgamated into RCP Media.
   - Acquisition of 50% interest in The Natal Witness.
   - Founding of distribution company On the Dot, also offering e-commerce services.
   - Sports portal SportsCN introduced in China.
   - Amalgamation of OpenTV and SpyGlass Inc.
   - 74% interest acquired in weekly newspaper Soccer-Laduma.
2001  - Acquisition of 46.5% in Tencent, an instant messaging service in China.
   - Nasboek's general book publishers amalgamated under NB Uitgewers.
   - Founding of Sunday newspaper Sunday Sun.
   - dit, Afrikaans version of Woman's Value launched.
   - MWEB delisted from the JSE.
2002  - First edition of Daily Sun published.
   - MIHL sold its interest in OpenTV.
   - MIH Holdings and MIHL became wholly-owned subsidaries of Naspers with their delisting from the JSE and Nasdaq as appropriate.
   - Naspers secondary listing on Nasdaq.
2003  - Media24 increased its effective interest in Paarl Media to 84.21%.
   - First edition of weekly Western Cape tabloid Kaapse Son launched.
   - Hungarian version of Woman’s value launched under licence in Budapest.
   - Monthly edition of Touchline Media’s publication Kick Off launched in Nigeria.
2004  - M-Net and SuperSport delisted from the JSE and Nigerian stock exchange, April 2004.
   - Tencent IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
   - Acquired a 9.9% minority stake in Beijing Media Corporation.
2005  - Acquired South African Tiscali internet business, effective February 2005.
   - Print media assets consolidated under Media24 umbrella.
2006  - MIH sold its investment in Thailand pay-television platform UBC and its investment in its internet business in Thailand, MKSC World Dot Com Co. Limited.
   - Irdeto acquired CryptoTec Conditional Access.
   - MIH acquired a 30% stake in the leading Brazilian media company Abril S.A. 
   - MIH acquired a stake in a Russian internet business, mail.ru.
2007  - Naspers capital raising completed in March, raising US$875 million. In addition, the ‘green shoe’ increased the proceeds raised by a further approximately 15%.
   - Naspers delisted from the NASDAQ and listed on the London Stock Exchange as a secondary listing.
   - In October MWEB Africa completed the acquisition of Afsat, the leading African satellite ISP.
2008  - MIH acquired Tradus plc (the Tradus group includes Ricardo and Allegro).
   - Acquired Gadu-Gadu.
   - Disposed of NetMed N.V.
   - Disposed of MWEB Africa.
   - Increased stake in mail.ru to 42.88%.
   - Acquired interest in Nimbuzz, ACL Wireless, BuzzCity, Compera ‘n Time.
2009  - Concluded the sale of MWeb Africa to Telkom.
   - Acquisition by Allegro of Bankier.pl and Arukereso.
 - Acquisition of 51% of Sulit.com.ph in Philippines and 34% of Lelong in Malaysia.
 - Acquisition of additional 11.145% in BuzzCity.
 - Acquisition of 91% in BuscaPé.
 - Acquisition of 51% in Korbitec by Property24.
2010  - Listing of mail.ru Group on the LSE.
 - Acquisition of 67.8% in OLX Inc.
 - Acquisition of 74% in Multiply Inc. for US$44m.
 - Sale by MIH of its 30% stake in Titan to the Hunan Sports Bureau.
 - Acquisition of 25% of Dubizzle.
2011  - Acquisition of LevelUp! International.
 - Acquisition of 80% of Dineromail.
 - Expansion of the Ricardo Group with the acquisitions of TrendSales In Denmark and 7Pixel In Italy and geographically expanding Allegro into Turkey with the Markafoni investment.

 

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