Yandex sells off Russian ops, now Putin itself about as Nebius Group
- Reference: 1721107991
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/07/16/yandex_divests_russian_assets/
- Source link:
The Born-in-Russia Google analog emerged in 1997 amid the dotcom boom, and by 2023 [1]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 [2]moved its IP out of Russia in 2022 – a strategic gambit "in light of the current geopolitical environment."
[3]
That's a polite way of saying "Russia is under heavy sanctions and that spells trouble for us."
[4]Co-founder of Yandex – Russia's Google clone – denounces war on Ukraine
[5]Russian businesses want to party like it's 1959 with 6-day workweek
[6]Gee, tanks: Russian hackers DDoS Germany for aiding Ukraine
[7]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 [8]publicly denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Volozh will [9]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.
[10]
The agreement for the sale of Yandex's Russian business to a Russian consortium was inked on February 4, 2024. Monday's [11]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.
[12]
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." ®
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[1] https://yastatic.net/s3/ir-docs/docs/2023/Q4/71ae385276741355556163d5e0f47b4c021c7e93/Release_2023Q4_ENG_af5a9.pdf
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/28/yandex_reorg_geopolitics/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZpZEut7VOAaWTLq1Bzh5ggAAA1c&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/11/arkady_volozh_denounces_ukraine_invasion/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/22/6_day_work_week_russia/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/30/russian_hackers_ddos_germany/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/28/yandex_reorg_geopolitics/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/11/arkady_volozh_denounces_ukraine_invasion/
[9] https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/yandex-nv-finalises-54-bln-deal-sell-russian-businesses-2024-07-15/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZpZEut7VOAaWTLq1Bzh5ggAAA1c&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://storage.ai.nebius.cloud/app-static/ir-www/assets/pdf/Nebius%20Group_press%20release_15-07-2024.pdf
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZpZEut7VOAaWTLq1Bzh5ggAAA1c&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Eets All Vine Now
Now zat zee vinancial maneuvers are complete, vee alzo have streeped out all ze code zat vas zendink customer invormation to Veerless Leader Putin.
Eets all vine, now. Very zafe, very sekure. Ve promise.
--Борис Бадинов.
How can the non Russia part of Yandex possibly be worth almost $3B ? They have basically zero users outside Russia or ex Soviet republics.
I have no idea. But then, the apparent "value" of western businesses that have no sign of profits also astonishes my logic as well.
Twitter for example...
Twitter had a lot of wealthy (and in some cases very influential) users. It was even making small profits. And yet there was very limited advertising on display in comparison to either Google or Facebook. So there was definitely money in buying it and trying to play the targetted advertising game - with extra emphasis on trying to use all those journalists and celebs to help (hopefully unwittingly so you don't have to pay them for it). Admittedly $44 billion was insane. But it was definitely worth a decent number of billions.
I often use Yandex reverse image search to find the source of an image online, and on many occasions it will find results when Google equivalent has none or is more interested to show me 'relevant' ads related to the image.
Novichok cocktail with a Polonium chaser...
I imagine Arkady Volozh is a very careful chappy these days as the current nutjob esconced in the Kremlin doesn't have a great reputation in dealing with his critics. Not that any of his predecessors distinguished themselves in this and I daresay unlikely any of his successors shall either.
Re: Novichok cocktail with a Polonium chaser...
Putin is evil and a total selfish sack of shite... but he is not a nutjob. He knows exactly what he is doing he just doesnt care.
Very smart moves compared to Kaspersky's complete tone-deafness in the geopolitical-economic landscape. The two orgs might be a good playbook for existing Chinese businesses to keep their eggs in two baskets as well, especially after the TikTok ban. Globalism was a bad idea for everyone, but especially for corporations, as it's advantageous for a multinational corporation to split itself up into territorial compartments, otherwise you get messes not only like this, but even Microsoft has had issues with various governments and how data is handled between them. You just can't expect to effortlessly do business when the egos of various despots can potentially bring your entire empire down.