Yandex is ending its Russian operations. This means the IT company is establishing itself entirely in the Netherlands.
In addition, the company is rebranding itself through a name change. Yandex will be fully rebranded under the name Nebius Group. The company’s focus will be on the development of technology for cloud storage and self-driving cars.
Departure from Russia
It can exit its Russian operations now that the $4.8 billion (€4.4 billion) sale has been fully completed. A group of local investors announced the purchase intent in February. The intent included a Moscow branch, from which services were provided.
Nebius Group will now operate from its headquarters located in Schiphol. This appears to be under the leadership of founder Arkady Volozh, according to a Bloomberg article. He can resume his activities as CEO after he got taken off the EU sanctions list in March of this year. He ended up on that list after allegations of spreading propaganda through Yandex.
Board Chairman John Boynton commented that the company had moved away from Russia definitively. “Today’s announcement marks the end of a long and complicated chapter in the life of our company. All ties with Russia are now severed.”
Ties detrimental to business operations
The move should make it easier to do business in Europe and elsewhere. Just last year, for example, fear of Russian interference quelled a takeover of an Italian cloud provider by Nebius.
Kaspersky recently also demonstrated that ties with Russia are detrimental. This company was banned from trading its security solutions in the US. The ban goes into effect on July 20, and from Sept. 29, no more software updates are allowed to ensure that customers seek another supplier.
Also read: Kaspersky sales and use banned in U.S. due to security concerns
Countering U.S. services
Through, among other things, the company’s own search engine, Yandex Search, the IT company has managed to make a name for itself as a counterpart to U.S. Google. Other similar activities included online advertising services, a translator, a location and e-mail service and, an app store for Android. These activities had an outlet (almost) exclusively in Russia.
In terms of mobility, it also set up services for this market as a counterpart to Uber Eats and Takeaway (Yandex Eats) and Facebook Marketplace (Yandex Market).