The combination of two large businesses into a single company for online taxi order, which will operate not only in Russia, but also in several other countries, has become one of the most discussed news of the week. The Moscow stock exchange has already reacted to it - on Thursday the Yandex shares went up by almost 25%. The client audience reacted - mainly expressing fears that the prices for the service will be increased; The antimonopoly service responded - the head of the FAS Igor Artemiev said that his agency will check the terms of the deal, as it can lead to a restriction of competition.

Finally, the news reacted ... citizens of Ukraine. "Yandex" in Ukraine is banned, and Ukrainians are afraid that after the merger, the same fate will befall Uber. Meanwhile, the deal, approved by the boards of directors of Uber and Yandex, is not yet closed - this event is scheduled for the end of 2017. Before this, it is necessary to agree on merger with the regulatory authorities.

In figures, everything looks like this: Uber invests 225 million in the new structure and receives 36.6% of the shares, Yandex invests 100 million and gets 59.3%. Another 4.1% of shares will go to employees of both companies. Moreover, according to media reports, the parent company of Yandex is Yandex N.V. - will receive a part of shares of class "A" of global business Uber Technologies Inc. In exchange for a 2% stake in the combined company. It will be possible to win back: Uber reserves the right to redeem the Yandex package at the agreed price, or the deal can occur on the initiative of Yandex, if he wants to sell his stake. What rights and privileges will Yandex receive as a shareholder of Uber (access to information on budgets, reporting, strategy) is not disclosed.

As will be called the offspring of Uber and "Yandex", it is not yet known. They announced only the name of the future head of the company - they will become the current general director of Yandex.Taxi
Tigran Khudaverdyan. The cost of the new company is estimated at 3.725 billion dollars. It will work in Russia and the five post-Soviet countries (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan). Tentatively, its drivers will make 35 million trips a month - for a total of 7.9 billion rubles.

"We have some idea that we have three main aggregators, if two of them are going to merge, then this is, of course, a separate market, and the threat of limiting competition is undoubtedly present here," Igor Artemyev, head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation.

Prices, as assured in both companies, will not change, and the quality of services will increase - but it is hard to believe in it. According to the analyst of "VTB Capital" Vladimir Bespalov, after the merger the new structure will provide up to 80% of all services of online taxi aggregators. The absence of competition is usually somewhat corrupting. This period of tough competition between Yandex and Uber was beneficial for customers: companies spent tens of millions of dollars a month, subsidizing trips, just to cut the price.

However, the reformatting period can be favorable for other companies of the same profile - Maxim, Gett, RuTaxi (brands "Lucky" and "Leader"). In Gett have already stated that they consider themselves the main competitor of the new service. For the consumer, the choice will be simplified, says Gett founder Dave Visser:

"Gett - the quality of drivers," Yandex "- the volume."

At the same time, he predicts that "the expected end of the price war between" Yandex "and Uber, apparently, will lead to higher prices."

How exactly the merger will be implemented is not yet very clear. It is reported that the applications "Yandex.Taxi" and Uber will continue to work independently, but on a single technological platform. This should significantly reduce the time of delivery of cars, increase the number of cars available for the order and reduce the idle run. At least, for the sake of it all is started.

Separate company "Yandeks.Taksi" became two years ago, in an experimental manner. Now, this online service neatly knocks under the competitor: after all, the merger means that Uber, in fact, is leaving the Russian market. However, as with other regional sites. The company is experiencing internal difficulties. After a series of legal proceedings, several top managers left her, and co-founder Uber Travis Kalanik quit with a scandal. Probably, the crisis moment is easier to survive without spreading over a wide surface and saving resources.

Approximately for the same scenario, Uber left China a little earlier - unable to withstand the exhausting competition with the local Didi Chuxing Technology, which caused losses of $ 1 billion annually. Uber acquired a 17.5% stake in the Chinese company and withdrew from the market. The situation with "Yandex" repeats this story. And although Uber try not to lose face and declare that "together we can develop faster and more efficiently," it is clear that in fact the Russian market turned out to be for an American company ... a bit complicated.