Margus Linnamae to become sole owner of Eesti Meedia

Margus Linnamäe Photo: Margus Ansu

Mart Kadastik, Meelis Luht, Andres Kull and Toomas Issak are to sell their holdings in the Estonian media group Eesti Meedia to Margus Linnamae's company UP Invest, and as a result Eesti Meedia is to be headed by Sven Nuutmann and the daily Postimees by Janeck Uibo.

In connection with the sale, Kadastik is to leave the position of chairman of the supervisory board of Eesti Meedia. Linnamae will become the new chairman of Eesti Meedia's supervisory board, it is written in the press release. "Mart's extensive knowledge and long-term experience with promoting the Estonian media has been a great asset to Eesti Meedia. I thank Mart for his work at Eesti Meedia and Postimees," Linnamae said.

Member of the management board of UP Invest, Sven Nuutmann, is to become the chairman of the management board of Eesti Meedia. Postimees is to be headed by Janeck Uibo who has previously worked as CEO of the media agency MediaCom as well as marketing director of Postimees. In addition, Toomas Issak will leave the management boards of Eesti Meedia and Postimees.

«I am very glad that Janeck Uibo, who is familiar with the advertising and media world, will once again join Postimees. I am convinced that both Janeck Uibo and Sven Nuutmann will prove themselves as competent and capable leaders,» Linnamae said.

Kadastik has headed Postimees and Eesti Meedia, which grew out of the former, for 32 years. He started working as a journalist at the Edasi newspaper 38 years ago. Issak has been member of the Eesti Meedia management board for the past 17 years.

Eesti Meedia employs more than 1,000 people. Companies of the Eesti Meedia group include Postimees, Kanal 2, radio stations Kuku, Elmar and Uuno, regional newspapers Parnu Postimees, Sakala, Jarva Teataja, Virumaa Teataja and Valgamaalane, classifieds portals kv.ee, osta.ee and soov.ee, printing house Kroonpress, and leading news and classifieds portals in Latvia and Lithuania.

The group last year earned 78.4 million euros of revenue and 5.7 million euros of profit.

UP Invest is an investment company owned by Margus Linnamae. It has directed money into media, the IT and technology field as well as retail and wholesale and healthcare. UP Invest also owns the new agency Baltic News Service and the majority holding in Eesti Meedia, owner of the Estonian daily Postimees.