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Yandex, the company often referred to as “Russia’s Google”, has agreed to sell its operations in the country in a cash-and-shares deal worth Rbs475bn ($5.2bn) to a consortium of Russian investors and spin off its main international projects.
The sale by Yandex’s Nasdaq-listed, Netherlands-based parent company is by far the largest by a western-held company seeking to exit Russia in the nearly two years since President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Yandex’s Russian business will be owned by a consortium including members of the company’s management and oil major Lukoil, while the Dutch company will rebrand and retain control of several internationally-focused businesses run by former Yandex staffers.