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FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The Dutch parent of pioneering Russian tech company Yandex is selling its operations in the country at a steeply discounted price of just over $5 billion to its Russia-based managers and oil company Lukoil, one of the biggest deals for Western-held companies to exit Russia since the invasion of Ukraine. He subsequently condemned Russia's invasion as “barbaric.” The Nasdaq exchange suspended trading in Yandex shares days after 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 NV Chairman John Boynton said the company had faced “exceptional challenges” since the start of the war. None of the purchasers have been sanctioned, Yandex NV said, and the cash part of the transaction would be conducted in Chinese yuan outside of Russia.

Persons: Vladimir Putin's, Arkady Volozh, Dmitry Peskov, ”, —, Alexander Chachava, Pavel Prass, Alexander Ryazanov, John Boynton, Boynton, McDonald’s, France’s Renault, Baltika Organizations: Western, Nasdaq, Yandex, Google, Yahoo, European Union, Companies, Baltika Breweries, Danone Locations: FRANKFURT, Germany, Russian, Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Netherlands, Israel, Finland, Avtovaz, Western

☆ Putin's war with Ukraine has basically killed off one of Russia's most successful tech companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Putin's war in Ukraine may have killed off one of Russia's most promising tech companies. AdvertisementPutin's war in Ukraine has taken quite a toll on the country's most successful tech company. The Dutch-domiciled company owns Russia's most popular search engine, which is often referred to as "Russia's Google." AdvertisementIt was also one of the most promising Russian tech companies in terms of global expansion. The tech company has, however, come under increasing government scrutiny in recent years after Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Persons: —, Arkady Volozh, Volozh, Yandex Organizations: Yandex, Service, Bloomberg, Google, Reuters, VK Locations: Ukraine, Russian, Israel, Russia

The logo of Russian technology giant Yandex is on display at the company's headquarters in Moscow, Russia December 9, 2022. Dutch holding company Yandex NV's planned restructuring is aimed at recouping some shareholder funds with the sale of its main revenue-generating Russian businesses, such as its search and ride-hailing operations. 'CONTROL FOR LESS'Yandex NV may sell 100% of a holding company set up in Russia's Kaliningrad region, said one of the people. A third source said this scenario would see Yandex NV make a clean break with Russia. Yandex NV shareholders could easily have been left with nothing, said one of the sources.

Persons: Evgenia, Yandex, Yandex's, Arkady Volozh, Russia's, nationalising Yandex, Darya Korsunskaya, Alexander Marrow, David Goodman, Bernadette Baum Organizations: REUTERS, Kremlin, VK, Reuters, Carlsberg, Danone, Yandex, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, Ukraine, Yandex, Dubai, Russia's Kaliningrad, nationalising

☆ Yandex's Yango in talks with Dutch watchdog over data protection
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/John Sibley/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsCompanies Yandex NV FollowAMSTERDAM, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Yango, the ride-hailing app owned by Russian tech group Yandex NV (YNDX.O), said on Thursday it is in talks with the Dutch Data Protection Agency to demonstrate that it adheres to European rules on data transfer and storage. The Dutch Data Protection Agency on Thursday confirmed it is also investigating Yango. Yango said the Finnish and Norwegian probes showed "Yango's personal data processing does not pose any imminent threat to the fundamental rights and freedoms" of European users. "As we have always stated, data of Yango users cannot be obtained from the service by Russian authorities outside of the established international procedures, for example, involving Interpol." Yandex is in the process of trying to separate its core Russian businesses from the international operations registered in the Netherlands.

Persons: John Sibley, Yango, Toby Sterling, Jane Merriman Organizations: REUTERS, Russian, Dutch Data Protection Agency, Nasdaq, Interpol, Thomson Locations: London, Britain, AMSTERDAM, Russia, Netherlands

☆ Finland lifts ban on transferring Yandex data to Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The logo of Russian technology giant Yandex is on display at the company's headquarters in Moscow, Russia December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsOSLO, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Finland's data protection regulator said on Tuesday it had lifted a temporary ban on Russian tech group Yandex (YNDX.O) and Dutch-based partner Ridetech from transferring to Russia the personal data of customers of Yandex's Yango ride-hailing app. The emergency ban was announced in August in response to Russian legislation which Finland at the time believed would give Russia's Federal Security Service the right to receive data from Finnish users processed in taxi operations. Yango has said it processes data in strict compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and EU legislation, and that Russia in any case had no jurisdiction over the company's international business. Norway had also planned a similar ban to the one issued by Finland but had not issued a formal order and will refrain from doing so, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Data Protection Agency said.

Persons: Evgenia, Ridetech, Yango, Terje Solsvik, Ros Russell Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Federal Security Service, Yandex, General Data Protection, Norwegian Data Protection Agency, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, Rights OSLO, Finland, Finnish, Norway

☆ Russian tech billionaire wants sanctions lifted after he criticized Ukraine invasion, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-27 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Russian oligarch called on the EU to lift sanctions against him after condemning Putin's war. Arkady Volozh made the call days after calling the war "barbaric," the Financial Times reported. AdvertisementAdvertisementRussian oligarch Arkady Volozh will be the first to formally ask for sanctions to be lifted after condemning Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, a report says. It is regarded as the first test as to how the West will treat previously sanctioned oligarchs who have gone on to publicly denounce Putin's war. AdvertisementAdvertisementBillionaire industrialist Oleg Deripraska had his $1 billion Sochi complex seized after criticizing the invasion, the FT reported in December.

Persons: Arkady Volozh, Volozh's, Vladimir Putin's, Volozh, Putin's, Oleg Deripraska, Volozh didn't Organizations: EU, Financial Times, Union, BBC, Google, Kremlin Locations: EU, Ukraine, Russia, Europe, Amsterdam, Israel, Sochi

[1/2] The logo of Russian technology giant Yandex is on display at the company's headquarters in Moscow, Russia December 9, 2022. Maksut Shadaev, the head of Russia's ministry of digital affairs, told parliament in December that around 100,000 IT specialists had left Russia in 2022. It is not yet clear whether Volozh's comments may have any bearing on how Russia decides to proceed with the company. One of the sources said "hawks" in state companies believed nothing at all should be paid to foreigners. Two sources said VTB had never been a serious option as a buyer, given sanctions on the state lender.

Persons: Yandex, Maksut Shadaev, Ramzan Kadyrov, Arkady Volozh, Andrei Kostin, VTB, Alexei Kudrin, Alexander Marrow, Polina Devitt, Mike Collett, White, Susan Fenton Organizations: REUTERS, nationalising Nasdaq, Reuters, Yandex NV, Yandex, U.S, Kremlin, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, nationalising, Ukraine, Serbia, Yandex

☆ Finland and Norway ban Yandex from transferring data to Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The logo of Russian technology giant Yandex is on display at the company's headquarters in Moscow, Russia December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File PhotoHELSINKI, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Finnish and Norwegian regulators said on Tuesday they had banned Russian tech group Yandex (YNDX.O) and its Netherlands-based partner Ridetech International from transferring to Russia any personal data of customers of Yandex's Yango ride-hailing app. The Yango ride-hailing service, which operates in 14 countries including Finland and Norway, is one of many services offered by Yandex, often dubbed "Russia's Google". "There is an acute risk to privacy as Russian authorities could potentially monitor the movements of Norwegian citizens via Yango," the Norwegian Data Protection Authority said in a separate statement. It said it processes data in strict compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and EU legislation.

Persons: Evgenia, Yango, Arkadi Volozh, Anne Kauranen, Terje Solsvik, Alexander Marrow, Susan Fenton Organizations: REUTERS, Ridetech, Finnish DPA, Federal Security Service, Russian Federation, Yandex, Norwegian Data Protection Authority, General Data Protection, Nasdaq, EU General Data, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, Russian, Netherlands, Finnish, Finland, Norway, Yango, Yandex's New York, Ukraine, Oslo, London

Often dubbed "Russia's Google", Yandex has struggled to balance domestic pressures with the interests of its Western investors since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. Yandex's net income fell to 9.6 billion roubles ($106.8 million) while its adjusted earnings before income, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 4% to 24.7 billion roubles. Revenue continued to grow, however, gaining 55% to 182.5 billion roubles, Yandex said. Yandex's Dutch-registered holding company is advancing plans to divest ownership and control of most of Yandex Group with a corporate restructuring. U.S. sanctions imposed last week on Alexei Kudrin, the former finance minister now spearheading Yandex's restructuring efforts, could hamper those plans.

Persons: Yandex, Alphabet's, Alexei Kudrin, Gleb Stolyarov, Alexander Marrow, Jason Neely, Emma Rumney Organizations: Google, Yandex, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Russia, Yandex's, U.S

☆ Chief of Russia’s Yandex faces court case for ‘LGBT propaganda'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Lucy Papachristou | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] The logo of Russian technology giant Yandex is on display at the company's headquarters in Moscow, Russia December 9, 2022. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File PhotoJuly 5 (Reuters) - The chief executive of Nasdaq-listed internet company Yandex faces prosecution in a Russian court for alleged offences under the country’s so-called “LGBT propaganda” law, a notice on the court's website said on Wednesday. When contacted by Reuters, Yandex said it would appeal any court finding against its CEO. The court website gave no specific details of what alleged offences Savinovsky was being prosecuted for beyond that they relate to "LGBT propaganda". Last month a court fined the company 2 million roubles ($24,242) for repeatedly refusing to provide Russia’s security services with information about its users.

Persons: Evgenia, Artem Savinovsky, Yandex, Savinovsky, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Yandex's, Bridget Jones ’, ” Kinopoisk, Russia’s, Elena Bunina, Lucy Papachristou, David Holmes Organizations: REUTERS, Nasdaq, Yandex, Reuters, State Duma, Novaya Gazeta, Kommersant, Thomson Locations: Moscow, Russia, British, Ukraine

☆ Yandex makes changes to financial team ahead of corporate restructuring
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

June 30 (Reuters) - Internet company Yandex (YNDX.O) on Friday said it was making changes to its financial team in preparation for a potential corporate restructuring that should see it divest ownership and control of core, Russia-based businesses. Sources told Reuters last month that shareholders in Yandex's holding company, many of whom are Western investment funds, could be in line to make $7 billion from a full divestment of its Russian businesses. Svetlana Demyashkevich, CFO of Yandex's Dutch-registered holding company, Yandex NV will transition to the role of Senior Vice President of Finance, Yandex said. "In this capacity (Demyashkevich) will advise the board on financial matters and report directly to the Chairman John Boynton," Yandex said in a statement. Yandex NV hopes to sell the main revenue-generating businesses inside Russia and develop four newer units, self-driving technologies, cloud computing, data labelling and educational technology independently, internationally.

Persons: Svetlana Demyashkevich, Yandex, John Boynton, Alexander Balakhnin, Alexander Marrow, Louise Heavens Organizations: Reuters, Yandex's, Yandex, Finance, Thomson Locations: Russia, Yandex's

☆ Exclusive: Russia's VTB may pull out of running for Yandex stake - CEO Kostin
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Maxim ShemetovMOSCOW, June 9 (Reuters) - Russian state-owned lender VTB (VTBR.MM) may pull out of the running to acquire a stake in internet giant Yandex (YNDX.O), the bank's CEO, Andrei Kostin, told Reuters, as discussions are now centered around higher prices than the bank's initial offer. Kostin said he was not sure VTB would continue with its bid. "I am not sure that we will go into Yandex," Kostin told Reuters when asked about plans. "It was announced at $7 billion recently, we submitted our application at a different price level, lower," Kostin said. VTB was hit hard with Western sanctions over Russia's actions in Ukraine, something that limits its ability to front a consortium bid, Kostin said.

Persons: Maxim Shemetov, Andrei Kostin, Kostin, –, Arkady Volozh, VTB, Vladimir Potanin, Vagit Alekperov, Guy Faulconbridge, Elena Fabrichnaya, Alexander Marrow Organizations: Moscow International Business Center, REUTERS, VTB, Reuters, Kostin, Yandex NV, Thomson Locations: Moscow, City, Russia, Maxim Shemetov MOSCOW, Yandex, Ukraine, Yandex's

☆ Russian billionaires bid for stake in Yandex's local assets -Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 19 (Reuters) - Technology company Yandex (YNDX.O) has received bids from Russian billionaires for a stake of about half of the company's local business, valuing it at over $7 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Billionaires Vladimir Potanin and Vagit Alekperov bid for at least a 51% controlling stake in Yandex's Russian business, which they value at about 560 billion roubles ($7.21 billion) to 600 billion roubles, the report said citing people familiar with the matter. The board of Yandex might discuss the bids next week when it meets in Dubai, the report added. Yandex's primary advertising competitor, Alphabet Inc's Google (GOOGL.O), stopped selling online advertising in Russia last year. The company also sold its news aggregator platform Yandex News and content recommendation service Yandex Zen to its Russian rival VK (VKCOq.L) in 2022.

☆ Fake images of Donald Trump and Pope Francis caused a stir. Here's 4 ways to tell if an image is AI-generated.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Fake images of Donald Trump's arrest and Pope Francis in a coat recently fooled the internet. AI experts shared four tips to identify deepfakes including reverse image search and fact-checking. The more subtle ones like Pope Francis can "slowly just chip away at our trust in visual media and make it harder to navigate the truth." Try a reverse image searchIf all else fails, Ajder suggested using a reverse image search tool to find the context of an image. Ajder recommended Google Lens or Yandex's visual search function for reverse image search capabilities.

Two government officials told Reuters the government was concerned about the deal because Nebius's activities were funded by Yandex. A third, separate source said Nebius is part of Yandex's Dutch holding company, Yandex NV, and would be part of the new international company post-restructuring. "They were basically told that as long as they're connected to a Russian company, it's not going to work," one of the sources told Reuters. "Our Dutch holding company is in the process of divesting its Russian business – unfortunately this isn't a fast process," Shtan said. Energy issued a statement last month saying neither the company nor its chief executive, Michael Bobrov, has any connection with Russia.

☆ Top brands pull out of Russia, but their goods remain easy to find
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Alexander Marrow | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Brands' continued availability shows the challenge companies face in controlling supply chains when exiting a market. Market leader Wildberries sells old stock from Inditex brands and has almost 17,000 goods in its Zara catalogue. Informal supply routes could lead to more poor-quality goods entering Russia, however, as regulators lose oversight, Ben Tzion said. IKEA brand owner Inter IKEA Group said it sold remaining stock for an undisclosed amount to Yandex as it down-scaled IKEA Retail Russia. IKEA said it was looking into goods being advertised as similar to IKEA online.

☆ Russian tech giant Yandex says code leaked in cybersecurity incident
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

"The company is taking this matter extremely seriously and has initiated a thorough investigation into the cause, content and implications of the leak," Yandex's Dutch holding company said in a statement. It said it found no evidence that users' personal information had been impacted but that the code contained the contact details of some of its partners. "Many of these and other issues which came to light following the code leak have already been fixed or are in the process of being fixed," it said. Since Russia sent its armed forces into Ukraine last February, websites of many Russian companies and news websites have suffered sporadic hacking attempts. A data leak in March exposed the personal details of more than 58,000 people on Yandex's food delivery app, Yandex.Eda.

☆ Russia's Kudrin accepts role as adviser to tech giant Yandex
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOSCOW, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Alexei Kudrin, who resigned as head of Russia's Audit Chamber last week, said on Monday he had accepted an offer from technology giant Yandex (YNDX.O) to become an adviser on corporate development. Yandex last month announced a review of a possible sweeping governance overhaul that would leave its major business units in Russia under new ownership. Sources told Reuters that Kudrin had been discussing the move to Yandex with President Vladimir Putin. Yandex confirmed that Kudrin was joining the company. A veteran of around 25 years in public service, Kudrin was finance minister for more than a decade between 2000 and 2011, and while maintaining close ties with Putin, Kudrin kept a relatively low profile in his current role as head of the Audit Chamber, Russia's public spending watchdog.

☆ Russia's Kudrin to leave Audit Chamber, opening door to Yandex move
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Kudrin, who has been seen as both a pro-Western economic liberal and close ally of President Vladimir Putin throughout his career, would become the highest profile government official to leave a post since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February. "In total, I spent about 25 years in the public sector," Kudrin wrote on his Telegram channel. He served as a powerful finance minister for more than a decade between 2000 and 2011, and while maintaining close ties with Putin, Kudrin kept a relatively low profile in his current role as head of the Audit Chamber, Russia's public spending watchdog. In a late-night meeting last week, Kudrin and Putin discussed Yandex's future, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Reporting by Marina Bobrova, Jake Cordell and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Himani SarkarOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Yandex parent to review ownership of Russian tech giant, seek divestment
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine. 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. Yandex N.V. said the strategic process was at a preliminary stage and that any changes would ultimately require shareholder approval.

☆ Russia's Yandex seeks Putin's approval for restructuring - FT
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Hadeel Al Sayegh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 24 (Reuters) - Russian internet giant Yandex NV (YNDX.O) is seeking President Vladimir Putin's approval to sell its operations in the country and spin off its main international projects, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing sources. The company has informally enlisted former finance minister Alexei Kudrin to win Putin's approval, in principle, for the restructuring plan, according to the report. Often referred to as Russia's Google, Yandex like many Russian companies has had turbulent few months after grappling with Moscow's increasing isolation in the wake of the Ukraine conflict. In August, VK, a state-controlled company with close links to Putin, agreed to buy Yandex's news feed and homepage. In exchange, Yandex acquired food delivery company Delivery Club from VK to focus on other business areas, such as food delivery and ride-hailing.

☆ Russia's Yandex posts 46% jump in revenues in Q3
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

SummarySummary Companies This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in UkraineMOSCOW, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Russian internet giant Yandex (YNDX.O) on Thursday reported a 46% year-on-year increase in total revenues in the third quarter to 133.2 billion roubles ($2.14 billion) and expanded its dominant share in the domestic search market. Yandex in August sold its news aggregator, content platform Zen and homepage yandex.ru to state-controlled VK in a move that is expected to tighten the government's grip on the internet, but maintains Yandex's stranglehold on online searches, which account for a little under half of its revenues. ($1 = 62.1000 roubles)Reporting by Alexander Marrow and Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Kevin LiffeyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia demands Apple explain VK removal from App Store
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Alexander Marrow | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SummarySummary Companies This content was produced in Russia, where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine. MOSCOW, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Russia's communications regulator on Wednesday demanded an explanation from Apple (AAPL.O) after applications operated by the Russian state-controlled tech firm VK (VKCOq.L) were removed from the U.S. firm's App Store. VK runs Vkontakte, which with over 75 million monthly users is Russia's largest social network, often compared to Facebook. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterRoskomnadzor said Apple's actions had deprived millions of Russians of access to VK apps and demanded that it explain its decision. Regardless of location, the apps cannot be downloaded from any App store, said Apple, which terminated the developer accounts associated with the apps to comply with UK sanctions.

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