Billionaire Arkady Volozh (No. 88 in Forbes' list of Russia's 125 billionaires - 2024, net worth $1.5 billion) will head a "significantly smaller version" of the company he founded after completing the sale of Russia's Yandex, two informed sources told Bloomberg.

After approval of the shareholders of Yandex N.V. will be renamed Nebius Group and will focus on the development of its own projects. Volozh will oversee the process as the company’s chief executive officer, the agency’s interlocutors emphasized.

Volozh came under EU sanctions in June 2022. Immediately after this, he left all posts in Yandex, which he founded. In August 2023, the billionaire, who had been living in Israel since 2014, spoke out for the first time “categorically against” the Russian “military special operation”* in Ukraine. In March 2024, it became known that the EU had lifted sanctions against Volozh. Brussels explained that the basis for exclusion from the sanctions list may be evidence that the person on the list no longer carries out the activities for which restrictions were imposed on him.

The American Nasdaq suspended trading in Yandex shares in the spring of 2022, the risk of default loomed over the company, and some foreign businesses were paralyzed. As a result, Yandex decided to restructure its business, dividing it into Russian and international.

February 5, 2024 Yandex N.V. announced the sale of Russian business to a consortium of investors, which included structures of Yandex managers (they became the largest co-owners), as well as structures of Lukoil and three private investors. In March, shareholders of Yandex N.V. approved the deal. On July 15 it was closed, Yandex N.V. completely withdrew from the group's shareholders.

Until July 31 Yandex N.V. will change its name and stop using Yandex brands. MKPAO "Yandex" has become the new parent company, trading in its shares on the Moscow Exchange will begin on July 24.

As a result of the transaction, Yandex has retained its businesses, services and assets in Russia and will continue to develop search, urban, entertainment and educational services, cloud technologies, unmanned vehicles and artificial intelligence technologies. Foreign assets, including Nebius, Toloka, Avride, TripleTen and a data center in Finland, went to Yandex N.V. The company intends to engage in developments in the field of unmanned vehicles, cloud storage and projects in the field of educational technologies.