Yandex becomes a Russian company. Almost a state corporation
Hello.
On Friday, November 25, the information field exploded with reports that the head of the Accounts Chamber, Alexei Kudrin, visited the President of Russia and agreed on his transition to Yandex. This reshuffle has been mentioned before, various sources indicated that Kudrin is communicating with Arkady Volozh, who is thus trying to divide the structure and withdraw part of the assets to foreign markets. Back in the spring, all signs indicated that Yandex was withdrawing assets from Russia, this concerned intellectual property, the development of the company, and the attraction of employees.
Cultural rejections of the Russian state are consistently built inside Yandex, which has become the norm for part of the company. Arkady Volozh himself was a conductor of ideas, but at the same time he did not shy away from receiving any preferences and support within Russia, using the administrative resource to the fullest. An attempt to sit on two chairs cannot be eternal, in the end, Volozh waits for all the events that caused immigration from Russia, perceives our country as a place where he receives money, but does not plan to live. This conclusion can be drawn by anyone who knows how little time Volozh was spent in Russia, how much real estate was bought in different countries. From a funny last month – squatters occupied Volozh’s house in Amsterdam, and the billionaire’s lawyers were not able to evict their frames in the following months.
Let me remind you that Arkady Volozh was on the EU sanctions list at the beginning of the summer, the Europeans said that he directly and tangibly supports the Kremlin’s actions. In “Yandex” according to the assessment of fairness, but nothing could be done with them. the imposition of Volozh’s desire to disown Russia, to remove the sentence from himself – which is hardly possible in the medium term. Even if he gives up the Russian assets of Yandex, he will be reminded of all the past in which he personally participated.
In the history of Yandex, I was always surprised by the duality of the company’s position. They crushed successful participants at the expense of administrative resources within Russia. On the other hand, they acted exactly against the state, in which their happiness and financial well-being ended up. Here it should be noted that Yandex could not become accessible outside of Russia, all external offices were financed by earnings in our country, expansion is possible only at the expense of Russian money. Walking the crisis is widely read, walking on everything and counting that at any moment the state will substitute acceptance, which ultimately happened, in this Yandex received soft loans, and de facto the state began to perceive this moment as a purchase of the company.
And here we come to the questions of the most in the whole history, which caused a lot of questions from outside observers. Why is the appointment to a state-owned company with the participation of the President of Russia, the owner of the company does not object to this, and even, against it, is glad about it? The answer remained in the past, that Yandex, which received benefits from the state, received the status of the state and began to work for the state. Despite the fact that completely different stories have turned into Yandex for internal use, a different positioning has emerged.
It’s no secret that most people in Russia believe that Yandex is knocking on the government, transferring all user data in one video or another. Comrade Major has become a household name and is associated exclusively with Yandex. In “Yandex” sluggishly dismiss such charges, but it systematically breaks through that business all over the world is set up in the same way, there are no exceptions. To some extent, this is a matter of faith – whether Yandex knocks on the state or not. Here, follow the results of the survey in our Telegram channel.
significant participation of the President of Russia in the division of the company, Yandex is a state asset that has invested money in our country. in all discussions there is a model according to which the Yandex section goes. A new company is developing on an over-the-counter basis, which includes drone groups, cloud development, and the Praktikum training area. In Russia, the structure is a new management structure, in fact, the remote Dutch Yandex NV
None of us really knows the environmental conditions between Volozh and the outside world, but I think that Volozh was selling his asset in his usual manner. From various episodes inside Yandex and indirect signs, we can draw the following conclusions:
- Volozh cannot be taken away from Russia;
- Russia continues to indirectly receive money in the Russian market.
We are confident that trading opportunities will return to Russia. This recitative sounds quite often and is perceived by politics in Russia as a kind of possibility, although everything here may depend on the scale of the prospect and what the new Yandex will do outside of Russia.
The deal is conceptual in nature, there is no other way to say it. An official of the highest quality with his social guarantee that Volozh will fulfill the agreements (and I think that he has no choice, he simply cannot but do this, his reliability was pressed). In my memory, there were no discoveries (and this is precisely the appointment and a minor other) of an official in a commercial IT company, and Alexei Kudrin does not have such experience at all. Along the way, according to media reports, Kudrin receives an option of 5% from Yandex, of which 2% at the very beginning, and 3% at the end of the work. Depending on the starting point, we can say that this is 200-300 million dollars. attention of commissions from Volozh for the war with the population. Agree that there is prohibitively funny in this subject, since it was not possible to explain adequately enough. In many countries, such an option could be described as an approximation to the violation of all principles, and in some countries it could even be considered a bribe to a public official. But in the observed situations, few people care how it all looks from the outside.
And here we come to the next point, any development situation for Yandex outside of Russia was negative, more or less acceptable was chosen from all the bad answers. In it, the breakaway parts of the company disown the Russian roots (this is already happening, and very actively). Some offices turn into companies with nondescript names to confuse the traces. Some are emerging in the new governing structure, which will be taken into account both by Volozh and, possibly, in the Russian state. And in any case, these connections will hit Yandex twice, no one will forgive in Russian and will not let them work. You can save a product only in a strong player, but they do not have it in Yandex development. Yes, and you can only buy intellectual property, no one wants to allow the integration of employees into some kind of corporation, the likelihood of trouble in the future is too high. External “Yandex” belongs to strangers and alien to everyone, traitors are feared everywhere, since their role model is always the same. Let us recall the complication of external conditions and sympathize with him to Arkady Volozh, the fate of development, as before, events unfolded with Russia. It is not expected that external offices of “Yandex” outside of Russia are rosy, the structure can be expected within 2-3 years, if funds are not raised in unlimited quantities. And there is such a lender – it is Russia. Another thing is why Europe or the United States is aware of this, most likely, there are no illusions here, and therefore they will consistently put pressure on Yandex.
Let’s now talk about the Russian “Yandex”. Tantrums are built into the company’s DNA as part of the corporate culture; inside Yandex, employees like to reflect on any occasion, and even more so when such large-scale changes occur. In Yandex chats, the news about Kudrin’s arrival was painted exclusively in negative tones – everything was gone, you need to run wherever your eyes look. The reaction is realizable and has nothing to do with reality, most of the employees are relaxed office people who do not show convictions and find work in any conditions if they are paid a decent salary. There are no fighters against the regime, all this is simply not a modality of behavior, nothing else, fashion, and nothing more. Therefore, they will work, perhaps not as well as before, but nothing catastrophic will happen. In Yandex, and so much has become crooked, nothing has changed, and now, perhaps, the angle of curvature has increased significantly. From a financial point of view, Yandex is not in any danger inside Russia – a monopolist in the field of taxis, search, a little later will become a monopolist in the field of food delivery. One word, a cloudless future and all the features of a state-owned company with a monopoly in the country. A sort of Russian Railways at the minimum. And this transformation will hit Yandex very hard, the company will gradually turn into a swamp.
The main task of Kudrin and his team will be the transformation of Yandex into a company loyal to the state, which will take about a year. The number of sculptures will not be prohibitive, dozens of people, no more. It’s definitely not worth worrying about. It is impossible to lose professional qualities with the support of such a state and exclude participation in the group. The company will have money, but the quality of service will become even higher, here, alas, the logic of development is understandable.
There is a small chance that now a new management team will be formed inside Yandex, the company may begin to grow in terms of sources. But it is precisely about participation in the fact that this, apparently, does not occur, such examples are unknown to me. It’s definitely not worth burying Yandex; from a financial point of view, the company will be in chocolate in the coming years. But there is no doubt that the potential for its development and increased competition in Russia will fall.