Russian search giant Yandex is looking to sever ties with its media products. Companies such as Zen which is a user-generated content recommendation system platform is currently being looked at.
Yandex News is another product that is potentially up for sale or some sort of liquidation. This news come under the backdrop of outside and internal forces.
From the outside, Russia is coming under pressure from the United States and NATO allies due to the invasion of Ukraine. We have seen sanctions all across the board for Russia and culling of the media outlets from the west who were mainly accused of spreading false information.
Internally, Russia is cracking down on information they deemed not suitable for the public such as news that is looking to taint the “special operation” in Ukraine as a war which is what the west is accusing them of starting.
As a result, Yandex is in a tight spot as there is an information war going on and they are in the midst of it all.
In a statement to investors, they made it clear that they are looking at different options for divestment and other strategies to some of their media platforms which can pose a risk for the company sometime in the future.
“The company intends to focus on developing its other technology-related businesses and products (including search, advertising, self-driving, and cloud) and transactional services (including ride-hailing, e-commerce, video/audio, and streaming), among others,” They stated.
The company has not come out publicly about a potential buyer as yet, but there are rumors swirling around that the Russian social media giant could probably be a contender.
