Following VimpelCom’s founding in 1992, the Company launched the Beeline brand in 1993. In 2005, the Company undertook a powerful rebranding campaign introducing the trademark black and yellow brand and underscoring a major program aimed at transforming Beeline into a world-class service company. In the same year, Beeline was recognized as Russia’s most valuable brand by the authoritative international organization, Interbrand Group, with a brand value exceeding 5 billion US dollars. Subsequently, the Beeline brand has been repeatedly recognized as Russia’s most valuable brand, has entered the world’s top ten most valuable brands on the telecommunications market, and was included in the top 50 most valuable European brands and the top 100 most valuable global brands.
In 2008, VimpelCom concluded a deal to acquire 100% of shares in Golden Telecom, one of the leading suppliers of integrated telecommunications services and broadband Internet access in major population centers in Russia and other CIS states. The merged company became the first integrated service provider in Russia and the post-Soviet area to provide the full range of services on the fixed-line and mobile markets. Integration also allowed VimpelCom to strengthen its position on the corporate user market – by September the single Beeline Business brand, combining all the Company’s products and services for the business segment, had come into existence.