Yandex and Uber have announced the merger of Yandex.Taxi and the Uber ride-sharing businesses in Russia and neighboring countries have closed.
At closing, Uber invested $225 million and Yandex invested $100 million in cash in the combined company. The combined business has more than $400 million in cash on hand at closing, with a combined company valuation in excess of $3.8 billion on a post money basis. The combined company is now held approximately 59.3% by Yandex, 36.9% by Uber, and 3.8% by employees of the group on a fully diluted basis.
Tigran Khudaverdyan, ex-CEO of Yandex.Taxi, has become the CEO of the combined business. Yandex has appointed John Boynton, Chairman of the Board of Yandex N.V.; Arkady Volozh, its CEO; Greg Abovsky, its COO and CFO; and Vadim Marchuk, its Vice President, Corporate Development, as its designated members on the supervisory board of the combined company; and Uber has appointed Cameron Poetzscher, its VP of Corporate Development, Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, its VP and Regional General Manager, EMEA, and Michelle DeBella, its Global Head of Internal Audit, as its designated members on the supervisory board.
After the closing, consumers will be able to use both Yandex.Taxi and Uber apps, while the driver-side apps will be integrated. Uber will also contribute its UberEATS business in the region to the combined company.
