The Blogging Czar of Moscow

Andrew Paulson has a knack for spinning chance encounters with the rich and famous into business opportunities. In the late '80s the New Haven native carved out a career as a fashion photographer after rubbing elbows with designers and models at parties in Paris. In 1993, Paulson was invited to Moscow for a shindig put on by Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, where he met the editor of a local business magazine. Shortly thereafter he moved to Moscow to run the monthly for its French publisher. Then, in 2005, Paulson ran into reclusive Russian banker Alexander Mamut at a Moscow dinner. The two got to talking over the meal, and soon Mamut agreed to bankroll an Internet venture Paulson was hoping to launch.

Together the pair founded a company called SUP-Fabrik with an eye toward assembling a network of online businesses. In December, SUP scored a coup when it bought LiveJournal, a blogging and social networking Web site owned by Six Apart, a San Francisco software developer—the largest-ever takeover of a U.S. Net outfit by a Russian company. Moscow media reports say SUP paid about $30 million for LiveJournal, although Paulson declines to disclose the figures.