LiveJournal was acquired by Russian investment company SUP, founded in mid-2006 with Russian investment and already owns online advertising agency Victory and the sales house +SOL.

Terms of the deal with Six Apart, the San Francisco-based technology firm that owns LiveJournal, have not been disclosed. SUP will be opening a spot in San Francisco to run the LiveJournal business in what is believed to be the first acquisition of a Silicon Valley business by a Russian firm.

The Moscow company has been managing LiveJournal in Russia since October 2006, claims that the site has become the most popular blogging platform in Russia, which accounts for 28% of its global userbase.

LiveJournal users can set up blogs for free but also use a range of social networking features, including a friends list and detailed personal profile.

The service, which claims just under 2 million active users each month, is funded by adverts on users' pages.

LiveJournal was founded in 1999 by 19-year-old Brad Fitzpatrick, who currently works at Google.