Russian search engine giant Yandex announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Tinkoff, the country’s largest online bank, for US$5.5 billion.
Yandex said that the acquisition was carried out in cash and stock, and the premium for its stock was 8%. In addition to search engine services, Yandex is expanding businesses such as taxis, e-commerce and entertainment . Tinkoff is a London-listed company. The company had previously proposed an acquisition by Yandex.
The ten-year partnership between Yandex and Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank, has deteriorated due to the race to expand into new overlapping areas of business. In 2018, Sberbank CEO Herman Gref (Herman Gref) made an offer to acquire a controlling stake in Yandex, but was rejected. After that, the new business expanded by Sberbank and Yandex formed fierce competition, making the partnership between Yandex and Sberbank unable to maintain. Therefore, Sberbank sold half of its equity in the e-commerce joint venture between it and Yandex to Yandex for US$600 million.
Tinkoff has performed well in retail and technology, but in recent years it has been difficult to expand its business scale due to strong competitors such as Sberbank.
Oleg Tinkov (Oleg Tinkov) is the founder and largest shareholder of Tinkoff. In 2019, Dingkov proposed to Yandex founder Arkady Volozh (Arkady Volozh) at a meeting in 2019. Tinkoff merger proposal. “The question facing Yandex is whether to choose Tinkoff or Sberbank?” Dingkov said at the time. “If we fully merge with Yandex, the capital of the new company resulting from the merger will exceed US$20 billion, and our two companies have talents. Outstanding workforce. Sberbank will also face a strong new competitor.”
Boosted by the news of mergers and acquisitions, the share price of Tinkoff’s parent company TCS rose more than 7% that day, and Yandex’s share price also rose 4.5%.
For more such interesting article like this, app/softwares, games, Gadget Reviews, comparisons, troubleshooting guides, listicles, and tips & tricks related to Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS, follow us on Google News, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Pinterest.