Yandex will fully buy out Uber’s shares in Yandex.Eda, Shop, Delivery, as well as in the business of self-driving cars and rovers. The partners will continue to jointly develop services for ordering a taxi, car-sharing, and scooter rental within the Yandex.Taxi group of companies.
Yandex will also acquire a 4.5% stake in the joint venture from Uber and increase its stake in it to 71%, including shares reserved for the options program. In addition, Yandex will have the right to buy out the remaining share of Uber within two years at a price fixed in the range of $ 1.8-2 billion.
As a result of the deal, Yandex expects to accelerate the pace of business development in the fast-growing e-commerce and food tech market by tighter integration of services and simplified management processes.
Lavka helps customers on the Market to receive orders at a convenient moment, and car delivery allows restaurants, cafes, and other businesses to expand the delivery radius and earn more with its help.
Yandex’s fleet of unmanned vehicles includes 170 vehicles that have covered more than 14 million kilometers in autonomous mode on the roads of Russia, the United States, and Israel.
Yandex courier robots, launched in 2019, have already made more than 26 thousand deliveries in Russia and the United States. Self-driving cars are a strategic direction for the company, in which Yandex sees great potential for growth in the long term, including on an international scale.
The total amount of the deal will be $1 billion. It has already been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and will be closed by the end of the year.
Recall that Yandex and Uber signed an agreement on the merger of businesses for online booking trips in Russia, as well as in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, and Kazakhstan as part of the new company Yandex.Taxi in July 2017. The deal was closed in February 2018.
Uber and Yandex invested $225 million and $ 100 million in the joint venture, respectively, valuing it at $3.725 billion. Taking into account these investments and possible adjustments at the time of the transaction closing, it was assumed that 59.3% of the company would belong to Yandex, 36.6% – Uber, 4.1% to employees.
In 2019, Uber estimated its share in the losses of the Yandex.Taxi JV at $42 million.
Under the terms of the agreement, until February 2021, Uber was not entitled to sell its stake in the joint venture without Yandex’s consent. After this period, within a certain period, Yandex has the preemptive right to buy out Uber’s share.
Also, the terms of the deal suggest that until February 2025, Uber is prohibited from competing with its joint venture with Yandex in Russia and the CIS “in relation to certain aspects of the business,” while the joint venture is not prohibited – it has the right to compete with Uber anywhere.
Source: Yandex Press Release
