Yandex Restructures Self-Driving Business
September 04 2020 - 4:00AM
Yandex N.V. (NASDAQ and MOEX: YNDX) and Uber today entered into
agreements to spin off the self-driving vehicles business, Yandex
Self Driving Group B.V. (“Yandex SDG”) from their ride-hailing and
foodtech joint venture, MLU B.V. Following these transactions,
Yandex SDG will be directly owned by Yandex and Uber. Yandex will
continue to consolidate the results of Yandex SDG and will be
reporting Yandex SDG results in the “Other Bets and Experiments”
segment of Yandex N.V.
Simultaneously with the spin off transaction,
Yandex will invest $150 million into Yandex SDG, $100 million of
which will be in the form of equity and the remaining $50 million
in the form of a convertible loan. Yandex will also purchase a
portion of Uber’s stake in Yandex SDG. As a result of the
transactions, Yandex will own 73% of Yandex SDG, while Uber will
own 19%. The remaining 8% will be reserved for Yandex SDG
management and employees.
“We are excited to increase our stake in this
strategically important part of our business,” said Arkady Volozh,
Chief Executive Officer of Yandex. “In just a short period of time,
we have achieved breakthrough results in autonomous driving. We
firmly believe in the future of autonomous mobility as a safe and
cost-effective form of transportation with a vast addressable
market. The additional capital that we are investing in SDG will
allow it to continue to pursue the R&D and productization of
autonomous mobility.”
Yandex has been developing its proprietary
self-driving technology since 2017. As of today, Yandex’s
autonomous vehicle fleet has 130 cars, which have driven over four
million autonomous miles on public roads in various weather and
road conditions in three countries - Russia, Israel and the United
States. The maturity of the technology as well as the accumulated
real-world mileage makes Yandex one of the leading developers of
self-driving technology globally.
Since late 2019, the company also has been
developing its own delivery robot, Yandex.Rover, aimed at the
autonomous delivery of small and medium-sized packages. The robot
could help to automate last-mile delivery of goods within our
ecosystem and beyond, as well as to offer a sustainable way to
deliver food and goods.
Yandex’s cumulative investment in SDG to date
has been approximately $65 million, including around $20 million in
the first half of 2020.
Recently, Yandex launched Yandex.Rover
commercial operations in the Russian tech hub of Skolkovo. Yandex
SDG is also planning to launch its autonomous mobility services in
Ann Arbor, Michigan (USA) and Tel Aviv, Israel in the near
term.
“We've been developing technology that can be
applied to various types of vehicles and that is suitable for
different road, traffic and weather conditions around the world,”
said Dmitry Polishchuk, CEO of Yandex SDG. “There is still a lot to
be done to apply this technology to ride-hailing, food delivery,
ecommerce, and many more adjacent categories in the longer-term.
The creation of a new company, with significant support from
Yandex, positions us well for the further acceleration of our
development and to achieve our goal of creating a safe and
efficient transportation ecosystem."
The transaction is subject to customary closing
conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of
2020.
For further information, please visit
http://company.yandex.com or contact:
Yandex N.V.Investor Relations Yulia
GerasimovaPhone: +7 495
974-35-38E-mail: askIR@yandex-team.ru
Press Office: Ilya GrabovskiyPhone: +7 495
739-70-00E-mail: pr@yandex-team.ru
About Yandex N.V.
Yandex (NASDAQ and MOEX: YNDX) is a technology
company that builds intelligent products and services powered by
machine learning. Our goal is to help consumers and businesses
better navigate the online and offline world. Since 1997, we have
delivered world-class, locally relevant search and information
services. Additionally, we have developed leading on-demand
transportation services, navigation products, and other mobile
applications for millions of consumers across the globe. Yandex,
which has 34 offices worldwide, has been listed on NASDAQ since
2011.
More information on Yandex can be found at
https://yandex.com/company
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