Yandex Parent To Review Ownership of Russian Tech Giant, Seek Divestment

Russian internet giant Yandex's Dutch holding company on Friday said it planned to divest ownership and control of most of Yandex Group, with the international divisions of some services to be developed outside Russia. From a report: Yandex N.V. said it had started a "strategic process to review options to restructure the group's ownership and governance in light of the current geopolitical environment."

"As part of the intended restructuring of the group, the board anticipates that Yandex N.V. will in due course be renamed, with the business to be divested retaining exclusive rights for the use of the Yandex brand," Yandex N.V. said in a statement. Russian President Vladimir Putin and former finance minister Alexei Kudrin addressed the future of Yandex in a late-night meeting, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. Sources told Reuters that Kudrin, a long-time colleague of the president, is expected to leave his role as head of Russia's Audit Chamber to take up a position with Yandex. One of the sources said that could happen in the coming weeks.

Yandex email

[Comboman]

I have a Yandex email address which I use to sign up for any service I don't 100% trust (it's one of the few remaining free email providers that doesn't require an SMS for verification). Ironically, that email has gotten zero spam. Either their filtering is better than Google's or Russian scammers don't piss in their own bathwater.

Re:

[boulat]

Try not to confuse 'Google' with 'competence'

Re:

[ls671]

I have a Yandex email address which I use to sign up for any service I don't 100% trust

You made me curious about the services you trust 100%. Do you care to share which ones?

hmm

[korgitser]

So if I read this correctly, they plan to move all of their technology and capital out of Russia, and leave an empty Yandex brand front to operate and comply in Russia?

Someone is going to be drinking polonium tea soon enough.

Re:hmm

[brunes69]

No, you are misreading it.

Yandex N.V. is currently the official, legal holder of all of Yandex's businesses. Yandex, like Google, makes most of it's revenue off of search and advertising, and then funnels that into other things that are, for the most part, money losers.

What this article is saying, is Yandex N.V. is going to divest of the search and e-commerce businesses in Russia. Those will be re-organized under Yandex Russia. Yandex N.V. will then keep other things - things that mostly do not make them money yet - cloud computing, AI driving, etc. Yandex N.V. will operate them under the Yandex "brand", but will be a different company with zero ties to Russia, financially or otherwise.

This allows Yandex Russia to keep being the Russian mouthpiece that censors search etc, while the other businesses can do other things. What is missing here is how Yandex N.V. plans to operate all of these businesses without the cash-cow of search advertising. I think they would have a tough go of it.

Re:

[korgitser]

Ok, makes sense. I would guess it has become difficult for them to get the search/ad money out of Russia, so it might be they really have no other option but to look elsewhere. Where they would find someone to actually put money in the company is indeed a good question.

Re: hmm

[orlanz]

It was always difficult to get assets out of Russia and similar countries (ie: India and China). Just ask McD or TacoBell.

But what is different here is that Yandex is a Russian company so it's more like it's hard to get a return on your investment in Russia. Basically you are at the bottom of the priority list. And given the situation, expecting anything otherwise is foolish.

Why it has taken this long to do this move seems to be the news that the Kremlin has gotten deeper into Yandex. Their former financ

Re:

[Kernel Kurtz]

Anything associated with Russia is poisonous in the West now. They can attempt to disassociate themselves by reorganizing but I doubt it is going to fool anyone.

Re:

[thegarbz]

but I doubt it is going to fool anyone

No one is being fooled here. Divesting and cutting ties of multinational businesses is a thing that happens and has happened to many companies recently.

Yandex N.V. is publicly traded company (and it is actually the primary business interest traded on the Nasdaq) so they have strict obligation to report how cash flows making it verifiable that they are not receiving income or providing money to Russia.

Re:

[Kernel Kurtz]

Western businesses cutting ties with Russia is one thing. Russian businesses (even if they are incorporated or traded elsewhere) cutting ties with Russia is a bit different. Good on them if they can do it though. Every Russian business that leaves Russia is a win for civil society, but I'd remain wary. Even Western businesses sometimes cook the books a little.

Re: hmm

[bumblebees]

Just because yandex would not have ties to russia on paper dont make it so. Not sure who would ever be naive enough to beleive otherwise

Putin must be wanting

[hdyoung]

to reorganize which of his specific friends and family control (and fleece) which specific parts of the economy.

So, in other words...

[greencfg]

...the Russians have used the European tax haven called Netherlands as everybody does, but now Putin feels that the Dutch are no longer that sympathetic to his money, so he decided it's safer to branch out. For those who don't know this, all larger companies have their main European business registered as a Dutch company, for a lot of money-making reasons.