Yandex sells off Russian ops, remaining Euro-biz now Putin itself about as Nebius Group
Two-year legal saga ends with Netherlands-based entity ready to bring diverse AI interests to the world
Yandex's Dutch entity has been untangled from its Russian operations in a $5.4 billion deal, leaving a new entity named Nebius Group without ties to Moscow and planning to pursue AI opportunties outside of Vladimir Putin's domain.
The Born-in-Russia Google analog emerged in 1997 amid the dotcom boom, and by 2023 racked up [PDF] $9 billion in annual earnings. By then, the business encompassed not only its core search engine, but maps, navigation, e-commerce, cloud computing, autonomous vehicles and AI services.
The biz moved its IP out of Russia in 2022 – a strategic gambit "in light of the current geopolitical environment."
That's a polite way of saying "Russia is under heavy sanctions and that spells trouble for us."
- Co-founder of Yandex – Russia's Google clone – denounces war on Ukraine
- Russian businesses want to party like it's 1959 with 6-day workweek
- Gee, tanks: Russian hackers DDoS Germany for aiding Ukraine
- Yandex plans to break up with its Russian motherland
In August of 2023, about a year after stepping down as CEO, Yandex cofounder Arkady Volozh publicly denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Volozh will reportedly now become the CEO of the remaining Dutch-based business, which has chosen the name Nebius Group. The Yandex brand will no longer be used by the parent company after July 30.
The agreement for the sale of Yandex's Russian business to a Russian consortium was inked on February 4, 2024. Monday's announcement [PDF] celebrated the final closing of the transaction, at which Yandex offloaded its remaining minority stake of approximately 28 percent for $2.8 billion in cash and 162.5 million parent company class A shares.
According to John Boynton, chairman of parent entity Yandex NV, the two-year endeavor to complete the cross-border divestment included the complete redesign of the group's operations, and will see it emerge as as collection of AI-focused businesses. Search won't be a part of the business.
He declared, "Today's announcement marks the end of a long and complicated chapter in the life of our company. All connections with Russia have now been severed." ®