M&A

Yandex.Taxi considers IPO; self-driving business unit to spin off

November 12, 2020

Yandex.Taxi, the taxi-hailing company which merged activities in Russia and some neighboring countries with Uber last year, is considering going public through a dual-listing in Russia and the USA. The company is in talks to hire Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to manage the potential IPO. “An IPO is something we are considering as we have said previously, and we work …

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Russian game giant Playrix acquires Ukrainian game studio

November 5, 2019

Last week Playrix, a global Russian-founded gaming giant, announced the acquisition of Ukrainian game studio Zagrava Games.  Founded in 2003 (known as ‘Friends’ Games’ at that time), this game development service company is located in Rivne (Rovno), Western Ukraine, and employs 60 people. Its creations include ‘Greedy Bunnies,’ ‘The Hunt for Red Panda’  and ‘Chasing Chaster.’  Among its clients …

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Sberbank to acquire $170 million stake in Mail.ru Group

October 31, 2019

Sberbank, Russia’s state-controlled financial giant, intends to purchase a $170 million stake in Mail.ru Group. As announced yesterday, the deal will see Sberbank buy into a company called MF Technologies, which owns a majority of Mail.Ru’s voting rights, from Gazprombank — another state-owned Russian financial outfit. Sberbank’s 35% stake in MF Technologies would give it …

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Mail.ru Group’s Dmitry Sergeev: “Our e-commerce JV will actively develop social and domestic dimensions”

November 14, 2019

Earlier this month Mail.Ru Group and Alibaba completed their e-commerce joint venture deal with participation from jointly with Russian telco MegaFon and sovereign fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). This JV will leverage on the existing businesses of AliExpress Russia, the B2C marketplace owned by Alibaba which controls the bulk of e-commerce flows between China and …

Mail.ru Group’s Dmitry Sergeev: “Our e-commerce JV will actively develop social and domestic dimensions” Read More

Mail.ru Group, Alipay, USM, MegaFon and RDIF team up to launch e-wallet JV

October 28, 2019

Earlier this month Alipay, Mail.ru Group, mobile operator MegaFon, sovereign fund RDIF and Alisher Usmanov’s holding USM agreed to create a joint venture focused on digital payment services in Russia. Their initiative is presented as being “part of efforts to promote financial inclusion” and “upgrade the country’s digital payment services.” The JV will integrate two existing …

Mail.ru Group, Alipay, USM, MegaFon and RDIF team up to launch e-wallet JV Read More

Yandex.Taxi completes acquisition of food delivery startup

November 12, 2020

Yandex.Taxi, the taxi-hailing company which merged activities in Russia and some neighboring countries with Uber last year, has completed the acquisition of Partiya Edy  (‘The Party of Food’). Yandex.Taxi had acquired a 83.3% stake in this startup in October 2018. The remaining 16.7% stake has been transfered to Yandex.Taxi for an undisclosed amount. Created in 2014, Partiya Edy …

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US startup Occipital absorbs GeoCV team to launch R&D activities in Moscow

October 18, 2019

US computer vision startup Occipital is launching an R&D office in Moscow, having absorbed the team of GeoCV, a startup with Russian roots. “By joining the teams we will enable new computer vision applications, which bring value to consumers and businesses,” said Gleb Krivovyaz, GeoCV co-founder and CTO. “Teaching devices to see and understand the world in …

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Alibaba and Mail.Ru complete JV deal to dominate Russian e-commerce

October 9, 2019

As Russian e-commerce is entering a new growth and concentration cycle, Alibaba, Mail.Ru Group, Russian telco MegaFon and sovereign fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) today announced the completion of their e-commerce joint venture deal. The JV will leverage on the existing businesses of AliExpress Russia, the B2C marketplace owned by Alibaba which controls the bulk of e-commerce …

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French carpooling giant BlaBlaCar to acquire bus ticketing platform Busfor

November 12, 2020

BlaBlaCar, the carpooling giant born in France, aims to expand on a new market segment with the acquisition of international bus ticketing platform Busfor. The news was reported today by business daily Kommersant, which cites exchanges with BlaBlaCar’s CEO Nicolas Bruisson and Busfor co-founder Ilya Yekushevsky. The deal, which is still subject to regulatory approval, …

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US digital media company acquires Russian AI-driven content personalization technology

August 29, 2019

US digital media company PressReader has acquired News360, a Russian-founded, California-based provider of content personalization and publisher analytics tools. The amount of the deal, announced last week, has not been disclosed. Founded in Moscow in 2010, News360 has developed a technology that “analyzes and attributes content from any given news story to more than a …

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Sberbank acquires large stake in online media group Rambler

August 27, 2019

Yesterday Sberbank, the state-controlled financial giant, announced it completed the acquisition of a 46.5% stake in Rambler Group, a major online media and entertainment group. The deal, which was approved by the antimonopoly authorities, has given Sberbank equal stake to investment holding company A&NN, while Era Capital owns the remaining 7%. A&NN is affiliated to Russian …

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Mail.ru Group acquires controlling stake in car-sharing company with leadership ambitions

November 12, 2020

Mail.ru Group, an LSE-listed Russian Internet major, has just announced the acquisition of a controlling stake with a capital injection in the transportation service company YouDrive.  Proxima Capital Group, a Moscow-based investment firm, took part in the deal as a “partner,” stated Mail.ru Group; but neither the nature of this partnership nor the amount of the deal …

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