VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Internet auction site eBay Inc said it planned to expand in Russia, still its top priority among emerging marketseven though the country faces increasing Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

Volatility spiked on Thursday after the tragedy of a downed civilian jetliner in Ukraine and the mounting death toll in Gaza and Israel interrupted the summer trading slumber.

The Institute of International Finance warned on Friday that further sanctions on Russia would have a "broader chilling effect on Russia" and its companies who are already largely excluded from raising foreign capital.

New York, US-based web performance monitoring firm Catchpoint Systems will be foraying into China and Russia, based on the pathway provided by their clients, indicating that Asia Pacific and Russia are the emerging markets in the industry.

London, UK-based music streaming startup Bloom.fm announced via Twitter that it shut down right after it was banned from Apple's ad network and its sole investor, Russian TV channel TNT, pulled its fundings.

Russian telecoms giant Vimpelcom has agreed to let go of its much disputed holdings in Orascom Telecom Algeria to the Algerian government after buying the telecoms firm from Naguib Sawiris in 2010 for $6 billion.

Russia's top oil producer has been planning to sell more than 2 million metric ton of crude oil to state-controlled BP in a deal valued more than $1.15 billion and was approved by the company's board.

Russian investment firm Inventure Partners picked up a minority stake in Moscow-based educational and interactive online course provider Netology for an undisclosed amount to allow the latter to accelerate its product development.

Menlo Park, US-based printer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) settled with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Security and Exchange Commission for $108 million over the bribery and money laundering charges filed against it.

Dmirty Firtash, a Ukranian businessman was indicted of US bribery charges along with five other men over allegedly paying bribes to Indian government authorities to facilitate a mining project.

Moscow, Russia-based mobile payments startup 2can landed $5 million in a Series B funding round led by InVenture Partners to integrate its service with banks in the country.

Toulouse, France-based Internet of things (IoT) cellular network operator SIGFOX landed €15 million in its Series B funding round led by IDInvest and BPIFrance to accelerate the international deployment of its network.

Internet company Mail.ru signed an agreement to buy the 12% stake of Ivan Tavrin in Russian social network VKontakte.com for an undisclosed amount to bring its total holding to 52%.

Menlo Park, US-based article and video bookmarking mobile app Pocket, which used to be available only for English articles, has now added French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish to the languages that its supports.

Dublin, Ireland-based oil exploration firm PetroNeft Resources raised $6.7 million (€4.8 million) in combined share placement and debt facility to support the development of its oilfield in Russia.