• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 15, 2024

Yandex finalized a deal Monday to spit the assets of the company. A Russian consortium of investors bought the bulk of Yandex's businesses in a cash-and-shares deal worth around $5.4 billion.

Four businesses focused on artificial intelligence for cloud services, data labelling, self-driving cars and education technology were retained by Yandex's Dutch parent company Yandex NV (YNV) and will be created under the Nebius Group name.

“Today's announcement marks the end of a long and complicated chapter in the life of our company,” Yandex NV Chairman John Boynton told The Moscow Times in an emailed statement. “All connections with Russia have now been severed.”

It marks the end of foreign ownership in Yandex, which led the Russian technology sector after forming the company in 1997, and later listing on Nasdaq.

Yandex became a dominant force in search and advertising, with the media industry calling it the Google-like search and technology company in Russia. It later developed businesses in ride-hailing, ecommerce and other online services.

The deal was announced in February when Netherlands-based Yandex NV, the parent company of the Russian search engine, agreed to sell its assets in the country to a group of local investors.

The company also will soon introduce a new management team and an expanded board of directors.

Arkady Volozh, one of Yandex's co-founders, will return as CEO. He had resigned from this position and other positions in the group after the European Union imposed sanctions against him in 2022. The EU lifted sanctions in March 2024.

YNV said it had sold its remaining minority 28% stake as part of the deal, receiving a total of $2.8 billion in cash and 162.5 million YNV class A shares, Reuters reported.

"With the second closing, YNV has received the agreed upon purchase price and now fully disposed of its remaining interest in the Russian businesses," YNV said.