The deal brings the country’s top tech player Yandex entirely under Russian ownership
The Dutch-registered parent company of Russia’s largest search engine Yandex has announced it has finalized the sale of its Russian business. The deal will see Russia’s largest technology player come entirely under domestic ownership.
The Netherlands-registered firm has sold a remaining 28% in the company’s Russian business for $2.8 billion and 162.5 million of its Class A shares, according to the statement.
Since 2022, Yandex NV has been seeking to divest its Russian business, which generates the lion’s share of its revenue, and to spin off a number of its international startups.
Earlier this year, the tech giant agreed to sell its Russian operations to a consortium of local investors and to spin off its main international projects in a cash-and-shares deal worth $5.2 billion.
The first stage of the transaction was completed in May when Yandex NV sold 68% of the shares in IPJSC Yandex to private investors.
Yandex’s Russian business will be owned by a consortium that includes members of the company’s senior management along with Russia’s largest private oil company, Lukoil, while the Dutch company will rebrand and retain control of several internationally-focused businesses run by former Yandex executives.
The Dutch-based firm will reportedly be renamed Nebius Group after shareholder approval and will stop using Yandex brands by July 31.
The co-founder of the Russian tech giant, Arkady Volozh would return as Yandex NV CEO, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified before an official announcement.
Volozh, who has lived in Israel since 2015 and has not visited Russia since the Ukraine conflict, resigned as Yandex’s CEO after the EU imposed sanctions on him in 2022. In March, however, the bloc lifted the restrictions, following his criticism of Moscow’s actions.
The Dutch company is expected to launch a new international branch which would control licenses for developing technology for self-driving cars, cloud storage, data labeling and ed-tech projects.
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