Yandex has struck a $1 billion deal to buy out U.S. ride-hailing giant Uber from a host of the pair’s joint ventures in Russia, the company announced Tuesday.
Yandex and Uber first combined their ride-hailing businesses in 2017, with a deal to merge their operations in Russia and a number of other ex-Soviet countries. This partnership has seen the pair cement its position as Russia’s leading ride-hailing service and launch a host of initiatives in areas such as self-driving vehicles, express food delivery and car-sharing.
Uber had controlled a 33.5% stake in the food delivery unit and 18.2% of the self-driving cars business.
Under the terms of the deal:
- Yandex will take full ownership of its food delivery operations — express grocery delivery Yandex Lavka and the Yandex Eats fast-food delivery service — as well as the company’s self-driving group, which is developing autonomous vehicles.
- Yandex will also increased its stake in the pair’s mobility-focused joint venture — named MLU, which consists of the lucrative Yandex Taxi business, Russia’s top ride-hailing service company, and the Yandex Drive car-sharing fleet — to 71%.
- The two companies agreed on a call option that would allow Yandex to buy Uber’s remaining 29% share in MLU for $1.8 billion at any point in the next two years, Yandex said in a statement. That deal implies a value for the pair’s ride-hailing business of more than $6 billion.
Tigran Khudaverdyan, deputy CEO of Yandex, said the deal creates “new substantial growth potential for our businesses.”
The deal has been approved by management at both companies and is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
Following the announcement of the deal, Yandex shares jumped more than 3% at the start of trading on the NASDAQ, to a new all-time high of $76 each on the news.
This article is an adapted version of a story from The Moscow Times.
