Uber rides off for cool US$1b in Russia

RUSSIAN IT giant Yandex said yesterday it had reached a US$1 billion deal to buy out ride-hailing service Uber from several joint ventures, squeezing the US company out of ex-Soviet markets.

Under the deal, Yandex will buy Uber’s stake in their shared food delivery operations and a business that develops selfdriving vehicles, gaining 100 percent ownership.

Yandex will also increase to 71 percent its stake in transport ventures with Uber — including taxi and car-sharing services — with an option to purchase the remaining shares for up to $2 billion.

The transactions will be completed by the end of the year, Yandex said.

Uber and Yandex had combined their ride-sharing businesses in Russia and neighbouring ex-Soviet countries in 2018.

Frequently dubbed Russia’s Google, Yandex started out as a leading search engine and developed into one of the country’s greatest tech success stories.

The New York-listed company dominates Russia’s IT sector, taxi-hailing services and food delivery operations with its army of bicycle couriers and multiple warehouses known as “dark stores.”

Yandex’s food delivery services skyrocketed last year after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic drove Russian cities into lockdown.