Yandex Owner To Exit Russia In $5.2 Billion Deal (apnews.com) 68
The Dutch parent of Russian tech company Yandex is selling its search engine and other services at a steeply discounted price of $5.21 billion to a group of Russian-based managers and oil company Lukoil. According to the Associated Press, it marks "one of the biggest deals for Western-held companies to exit Russia since the invasion of Ukraine." From the report: The price reflects a 50% discount that Moscow imposes on companies from "unfriendly" countries like the Netherlands as a condition of exiting business in Russia, according to a statement Monday from Nasdaq-exchange listed Yandex NV. [...] The sale in cash and shares worth 475 billion rubles would transfer Yandex's core business -- representing more than 95% of its revenue, assets and employees -- to the group of up to 50 managers, Lukoil and business entities owned by investors Alexander Chachava, Pavel Prass and Alexander Ryazanov.
The 50% discounted sale price was based on the average value of Yandex shares on the Moscow exchange for the three months ending Jan. 31 -- $10.2 billion. That's after shares had already fallen by more than half in ruble terms since their peak before the invasion. After the sale, Yandex NV would be left with its international businesses -- employing 1,300 people -- including self-driving technology and generative artificial intelligence as well as a data center in Finland.
Yandex, founded in 1997 as Russia's answer to Google and Yahoo, serves Russian-speaking customers through its search engine and with widely used apps for food delivery, car-sharing and shopping. Co-founder Arkady Volozh, who had earlier moved to Israel, resigned as CEO in 2022 after he was hit with European Union sanctions. He subsequently condemned Russia's invasion as "barbaric." The Nasdaq exchange suspended trading in Yandex shares days after the invasion.
The 50% discounted sale price was based on the average value of Yandex shares on the Moscow exchange for the three months ending Jan. 31 -- $10.2 billion. That's after shares had already fallen by more than half in ruble terms since their peak before the invasion. After the sale, Yandex NV would be left with its international businesses -- employing 1,300 people -- including self-driving technology and generative artificial intelligence as well as a data center in Finland.
Yandex, founded in 1997 as Russia's answer to Google and Yahoo, serves Russian-speaking customers through its search engine and with widely used apps for food delivery, car-sharing and shopping. Co-founder Arkady Volozh, who had earlier moved to Israel, resigned as CEO in 2022 after he was hit with European Union sanctions. He subsequently condemned Russia's invasion as "barbaric." The Nasdaq exchange suspended trading in Yandex shares days after the invasion.
TL;DR: Startups in pariah states are unprofitable (Score:3)
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Simply sell 99.9999% of the concern. Your .00001% share means you have not exited Russia, and are not subject to the 50% gift tax.
Would that work? I would think some financial wizard at one of the affected businesses would have thought of that already
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I think you just got whooshed, though AC seems more born of Reddit humor and not the pedantry we practice here lol
When the war is over (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder why Yandex didn’t sell earlier. Maybe they thought the war would blow over quickly? If so, damn bad business decision. I can’t imagine Yandex made enough profit in the last year to offset the 50 percent drop in price. Maybe they couldn’t find a buyer fast enough.
Re:When the war is over (Score:5, Interesting)
That depends entirely on how the war ends. And who is in charge afterwards.
If you look at Germany after WW2, that recovered pretty fucking quickly. Granted, they replaced the leadership quite radically...
Re:When the war is over (Score:5, Interesting)
I have heard people talking about the likelihood that the US and EU have a sort of "Marshall Plan for Russia" in their back pockets for if it collapses.
A collapsed Russian state is dangerous not just for the obvious reasons though but the fact that China likely has their own similar plan for that knowing the US was not only able to rebuild Germany and Japan but make really strong allies out of both.
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In some ways, a collapsed Russian state would be worse than most people could imagine. When the Russian Revolution happened, there were other countries already trying to grab up turf. Even the US had to hold Russian cities to run off the Imperial Japanese, like Murmansk, Archangel, and Vladivostok. This is a sore point with Russia, and is justification for them pointing missiles at the US even after all this time.
If one looks at the border of Russia, pretty much all but the NATO and Baltic states are not
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Hate following up to one's own post, but to keep Russia going and all Hell from breaking loose, it will take the US doing a lend/lease program on a scale of Europe's, but also ensuring that Russia's borders remain fortified, with immediate, brutal consequences for anyone that steps over that red line.
Russia and China, even though they are allies, are not exactly on Schengen Agreement terms with each other. Although Russia is becoming more and more indebted to China over time with them helping keep the Ukra
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Yeah I think you are spot on with a lot of that and of course there is simply the inevitability of Putin just dying and I don't know if there is someone in the wings that can be, let's say as "effective" as he is in keeping the country mostly together and I have also heard he is the glue that keeps the oligarchs cooperative. Not gonna get calmer over there anytime soon.
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In some ways, a collapsed Russian state would be worse than most people could imagine.
I think it would be a vast improvement.
When the Russian Revolution happened, there were other countries already trying to grab up turf.
If one looks at the border of Russia, pretty much all but the NATO and Baltic states are not really nice countries. If there is any sign that Russia couldn't strike and strike hard at anyone stepping into the Motherland, Russia would be overrun, be it China from the east and south, the *stan countries from the south, and Middle Eastern nations (including ISIS) from the Caspian sea. The war that would be fought over Russia's carcass would be a true World War 3, as everyone makes a land grab. It would even shatter NATO, because it would be every country for themselves in grabbing Russian territory.
For those channeling the paranoid delusions of an imperialist tyrant I can see this perspective making a lot of sense. The reality is the country would be fragmented into a bunch of independent states similar to what happened when the USSR collapsed.
What we want is a Democratic Russia not sending invading other countries without provocation. Russia as a trade superpower would be a net benefit to the world, just because of the access to "space corridors", technology and many resources. If Russia's government wasn't based on Stalin's brutal, paranoid ways, they could be an asset to the world.
Russia is an oil cursed shithole not a superpower.
Re: When the war is over (Score:2)
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You know, you could have said pretty much the same about the Germans 'til about 1945. They were a militaristic society through and through, for generations told that "the military is everything, you are nothing", and this was sitting pretty deeply with them.
Weirdly, it took less than a generation of a Wirtschaftswunder to turn that around. You know, when you show people that they can have it all and then some if they abandon their old ways that didn't get them anywhere, they usually follow pretty fucking qu
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China is on the brink of collapse themselves. They might be able to reclaim the area that Russia stole long ago but there is no way in hell they could take over the country.
If Russia collapses it will fall back in to the traditional feudal systems with warlords controlling various areas.
That's a nice fantasy but China isn't going to disappear in a catastrophic implosion that will send it back to being a giant sweatshop of marginal geopolitical importance any time soon. Sure, China might have a major recession that will teach them a fair few lessons about the downsides of unrestrained and overenthusiastic capitalism but we ain't going back to a state of unchallengeable US hegemony under the banner of Manifest Destiny any time soon.
Re:When the war is over (Score:4, Insightful)
Without a radical change of Russia's state/societal structures any "Marshall plan for Russia" would be a "Marshall plane for oligarchs". And I don't see how the state structures could be changed without a lot of trouble/destruction.
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Fairly sure it would be on the assumption that there is something of a moderate political system in place that is anti-oligarch, which is why it's not likely but if there was sort of fledging democracy there I think we should try and support it because a stable Russia on the path to stronger integration would be desirable for all sides.
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Hasn't the theory that engaging with those "sort of fledgling democracies" been tested already, with China and with Russia itself after the fall of communism? The West tried to open to them, help them grow their economies, hoping that improved standards of living and Western influence will lead to their democratization. The assumption has proved false, and has ended up creating stronger, more assertive dictatorships.
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I've read a few accounts of that with varying explanations. A lot of people paint a somewhat compelling picture of just the opposite, that a cold war focussed US actually undermined the process or that Yeltsin was close to repairing relations or that he screwed it up. I don't think at the end of it western support caused or prevented the rise of oligarchy.
Russia is a country that spent centuries under monarchy, violent revolution, authoritarian communism, collapse, oligarchy, it's not gonna be a smooth ro
Re: When the war is over (Score:4, Insightful)
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Yeah I don't expect that but I am thinking more of a anti-Putin overthrow, not unlike what happened in Ukraine. There certainly is a contingent of the population that doesn't like the current structure there and would benefit from global economic integration.
Now I am more than aware those situations have an ocean of differences and Russia is far more willing and capable to put down any resistance as we saw with Prighozin (sp?), but I think on the off chance such a thing happened and Putin is ousted and the
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The same could have been said about Germany 1943. A country so indoctrinated that any idea of "teh enemy" calling the shots would not happen. They will fight 'til the end, house for house, street for street. Guess what, didn't happen.
What did it for Germany was first, that they were, without a doubt, defeated. Something that didn't happen after WW1. When WW1 ended, the frontline was actually well within France. Of course the conspiracy lunacy of the "dagger-in-the-back" could be spread because, hey, we were
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I think you massively underestimate how devoted both the Japanese and Germans were to their governments prior to the war. I dont think the Russians are half as enthusiastic about their governance as those two countries were during the WW2 era.
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We already tried that when the Soviet Union fell. The changes were superficial at best, Russia remained incredibly corrupt and rotten.
I wouldn't save a failing Russia. It's better to let it collapse and break up as the Soviet Union did before it. If one day the states that arise out of Russia's death become friendly and cooperative and either merge or form something like the EU, great. But there's no upside to the world helping Russia survive just to provoke shit around the world until whatever strongma
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It doesn't mean we shouldn't try again if the conditions are right.
Thing with the USSR is it broke up because it had absorbed those states in pretty recent history so they still had pretty strong nationalist and cultural sentiments still, I don't know if that exists as much in it's borders now, like are there Muscovite and Novgorodian independence movements? Maybe there are, I dunno, if we don't want another strongman I think we gotta help out any movements towards not having another strongman
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The problem is, the state that would emerge from a collapsing Russia won't be friendly and cooperative. What you'd get from a collapsing Russia is a Germany after WW1. A population that is defeated and shamed despite having the feeling that they were not beaten, a breeding ground for conspiracy theories concerning why the glorious, unbeatable nation could be beaten so easily and the emergence of The Great Leader.
Only this time, with nukes.
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There is a huge difference between Germany then and Russia now. Germany was a fully occipied country with a top of the line industry. The allied armed forces only left Germany decades later, making sure their investments were protected. And last but not least Germany was propped up to take part in the cold war, being essentially the border between the NATO and the Warsaw pact.
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That depends entirely on how the war ends. And who is in charge afterwards.
If you look at Germany after WW2, that recovered pretty fucking quickly. Granted, they replaced the leadership quite radically...
... and they created a functioning democracy and a state governed by the rule of law. Even if Czar Vladimir abdicates, retires and hands his crown and sceptre over to one of his daughters or some trusted member of the Russian nobility I don't see the Russians making those kinds of changes any time soon.
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No, if it ends like this, it's an end like after WW1. And I honestly fear, that's what's going to happen. Russia will be beaten but not broken, it will have to surrender while still standing in the middle of Ukraine because the economy collapses and the people revolt (again). The country becomes an international pariah with everyone and their dog wanting them castrated and crippled so never ever ever it can raise again and become a threat.
In other words, it will be WW1 all over again. Germany had to surrend
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"Russia is going to have to deal with several decades of economic fallout."
Am I reading a statement from March 2022? That isn't what has happened at all, Rudsia has rebounded economically and, very much unlike venezuela, the western world's sanctions on Russia did not work, and actually accelerated de-dollarization. The US doesn't get to call the shots anymore, and the dollar's status as reserve currency will be threatened.
Also I have to laugh when I see comments glowing on Democracy vs. undemocratic Russia
What a price! (Score:2)
5.2 billions.
Most Russians would do it for free.
It will be interesting to see what happens... (Score:3)
Yandex has some very useful things (although I've not used them since 2021). Their reverse picture scanning actually brought up useful options and URLs learing to pictures. Their cloud services are quite solid, and were it not for political issues, probably one of the best to store offsite backups in another nation. Their email is decently robust, and overall, they are a not so bad cloud service. Whomever set it up did a decent job with it. Were it not for politics, I'd probably trust them more with an Entra-like directory server than Microsoft.
It will be interesting to see what happens to them, especially with the brain drain where Russians head to greener pastures to avoid being tossed on the front lines in Ukraine, server components wind up pretty much being Chinese exclusives (with the concerns about China bundling in more "features" than expected), and availability of start of the art hardware, especially chips that do matrix stuff for the heavy lifting for AI.
Here's a wild idea: Don't buy from or sell to R's. (Score:3)
How's that sound, scumbags?
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Re: Here's a wild idea: Don't buy from or sell to (Score:1)
If you don't play "yea but" then you're arbitrarily allowing some people to do shit things and letting other people off the hook.
If you want to allow that, then you don't get to complain about the other side doing it too. You can't pretend to have the moral high ground if you're doing the exact same thing that the other guys are.
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Re: Here's a wild idea: Don't buy from or sell to (Score:1)
That is true but drawing comparisons and pointing out the lack of moral standing is not the same as whataboutism.
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Re: Here's a wild idea: Don't buy from or sell to (Score:1)
Not true.
You don't get to say that you're taking a moral stance on Russia's infractions if you yourself are doing the exact same thing elsewhere. It's not "shilling for a genocidal regime", it's pointing out hypocrisy.
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Just refuse to do business there and keep your intellectual property. Keep enforcing your intellectual property to the exact extent that's possible
Then they just mandate a sale at 10% of the price, or worse, simply takeover the company for free. Their country their rules.
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That's a great approach for any new company starting now with 2023 era information, not so much for a company that was founded decades ago and has complex multinational interests.
The world isn't anywhere near as simple as you make it out to be.
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The US has been a prime enabler of nazism around the world since WWII. The IDF has trained Azov battallion nazis, not to mention even nazis in south america. https://www.uncaptured.media/p... [www.uncaptured.media]
You throw around the word nazi while doing it the helpful service of rendering it meaningless. You're following the troll book there with incindiary talk, but it looks and smells microwaved.
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Perhaps better to slowly sell on the MCX (Score:2)
I mean, Yandex is listed on the MCX (Moscow Exchange) The war started Feb 22, If you sell say, 0,5% of your shares every day since, say July 22, by this time (feb 24) you pretty much sold all your stock... then you turn around and sell your rubbles to all those companies buying russian oil and gas that had to pay in rubbles (as per putin's orders, violating the terms of their contracts BTW).
This smells like the dutch conglomerate wanted to keep the company, and pressure was mounting for them to exit russia,
Re: Perhaps better to slowly sell on the MCX (Score:2)
Even on free markets, you will send stock prices down hard if you try to pull this scheme. And in Russia, you need Kremlin's approval to sell any significant stock in major companies.
They got off lucky (Score:1)
They should be thankful it's only money they've lost. They could have been like Belgium and had their buidling destroyed by Israel [imgur.com] because they continue to provide aid to Palestine.
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Just doing my part to keep old traditions alive.
Time travel as its finest (Score:2)
Yandex, founded in 1997 as an answer to Google, founded in 1998. Sure, why not. Mr Volozh is a pretty good visionary.
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Yandex, founded in 1997 as an answer to Google, founded in 1998.
They're just applying Musk Math(TM).
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Yandex, founded in 1997 as an answer to Google, founded in 1998. Sure, why not. Mr Volozh is a pretty good visionary.
PRobaly yandex was founded to do something else and then "pivoted".
Or perhaps they were funded to imitate yahoo! and altavista, and when google rose to prominence they were touted as an answer to it...
Be generous, that guy/girl could probably be mispelling your name on your starbucks cup, instead, got a better paying job doing weird redaction inside AP. English is not my first language, so i tend to err in the side of kindness ;-)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
I'm also going to add domain registration dates to the argument.
google.com "Creation Date: 1997-09-15T07:00:00+0000"
yandex.com "Creation Date: 1998-09-24T04:00:00Z"
yandex.ru "created: 1997-09-23T09:45:07Z"
ya.ru "created: 1999-07-12T14:40:22Z"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The important bit of that page comes from here. https://web.archive.org/web/20... [archive.org]
"Volozh began dabbling in algorithms to cond
OK (Score:2)
If you ask me, $5.2 B is a good deal, in one-two years the market value for Yandex will be much less than that.