LILLEHAMMER, NORWAY – Langrenn.com, the Norwegian cross-country skiing website, has gone through a transformation in ownership over the past six months. The site is currently owned by Nilsen Support, which consists of Geir Nilsen and his father, through the company MG Service AS. Longterm majority shareholder and managing editor, Trond Harald Sand, was officially out of the picture as of September 1, 2010, as was reporter Ivar Haugen. For Sand, the exit from Langrenn.com ended an eight-year involvement with the website. Current staff at Langrenn.com includes the owners and reporter Ola Jordheim Halvorsen, who is contracting with the site.
Geir Nilsen first came into Langrenn.com in mid-2009, when he bought one-third of the company’s stock. Nilsen then bought Sand’s share of the company (just over 40 percent) early in March 2010, and the remaining 25 percent of the stocks from Ivar Haugen and Petter Halvorsen later that month. Langrenn.com was originally established in 1999; Nilsen also owns and operates the orienteering web site www.opn.no, through Nilsen Support.
Sand still owns the majority of the stock in the Swedish cross-country website www.langd.se, where Kjell Erik Kristiansen owns the rest, and Sand also owns half of the Norwegian biathlon site www.strafferunden.no, which was launched earlier this month. EuroSport TV reporter Ole Kristian Stoltenberg owns the other half of www.strafferunden.no.
Inge Scheve
Inge is FasterSkier's international reporter, born and bred in Norway. A cross-country ski racer and mountain runner, she also dabbles on two wheels in the offseason. If it's steep and long, she loves it. Follow her on Twitter: @IngeScheve.
