"" and signed an agreement to merge online travel booking businesses in Russia, as well as in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan, the Yandex blog says. Against the backdrop of the deal, Yandex shares rose more than 12% in NASDAQ preliminary trading. Quotations on the Moscow Exchange grew by more than 14%.

Under the terms of the agreement, Uber and Yandex will invest $225 million and $100 million, respectively, in the new company, valuing it at $3.725 billion. Taking into account these investments and possible adjustments, at the time of closing the transaction, 59.3% of the company will be owned by Yandex, 36, 6% for Uber and 4.1% for employees. The companies expect to close the deal in the fourth quarter of 2017, after regulatory approval. Tigran Khudaverdyan, CEO of Yandex.Taxi, will head the company.

The new company will leverage Yandex's technology and expertise in mapping and navigation services and search engines, and Uber's experience as the world's leading online travel booking service. The companies also entered into a roaming agreement, according to which you can order an Uber taxi from the Yandex application and vice versa.

Khudaverdyan said that both service applications will remain available for ordering trips, and drivers will be combined into a single platform. According to him, this will increase the number of available cars and reduce the waiting time for an order. According to him, the companies want to build together "personal public transport" - an alternative to a personal car, buses or the subway.

“We will also continue to develop the technology of an unmanned vehicle, the first successes of which were published a few weeks ago. We use the many years of accumulated experience of our engineers, their knowledge in computer vision, pattern recognition and machine learning. I hope that soon there will be something to brag about,” noted Khudaverdyan.

"This combination benefits not only both companies, but most importantly - users, drivers and cities - also said Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Koti, head of Uber in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. - This transaction confirms the exceptional growth of Uber in the region and will help in the further formation of sustainable international business".

The combined company will cover 127 cities in six countries and carry out about 35 million trips per month worth 7.9 billion rubles, Yandex calculated. In addition, the UberEATS food delivery service, recently launched in Moscow, will continue to develop in the new company and will use the Yandex.Maps walking routing technology.

Uber entered the Russian market in November 2013 in Moscow, by July 2017 the American service can be used in almost 20 Russian cities. Yandex.Taxi was launched in Moscow in October 2011. Currently Yandex.Taxi operates in more than 100 major cities in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan.

Uber did a similar merger in China in 2016. The service has merged its Uber China business with its main local rival, Didi Chuxing. Then the companies merged on the Didi Chuxing platform, which received the Uber China brand, business and company data, and Uber received a stake in the joint venture.

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It has become a real information bomb - this merger can significantly change the further development of the taxi market in Russia.

Rusbase decided to get the opinion of a specialist on the topic - Ilya Ekushevsky, co-founder of the Busfor service, tells what the unification of services means, why it happened and what are the price prospects for end customers.

“Ride and enough”: what does the merger of Yandex.Taxi and Uber mean - expert opinion

Ilya Ekushevsky

Ride and enough

The fact is that the consolidation of large players can lead to market monopolization. As a result, the service will rise in price for end customers, but not immediately.

According to Western publications, the deal on the merger of companies should be completed before the end of this year, so while the cost of the service, most likely, will not change. But in 2018, changes can be expected: the prerequisites for increasing the cost have long been ripe.

The possible increase in prices is due to the fact that, due to competition, the cost of a taxi ride has fallen to such an extent that the service has become affordable for everyone. Therefore, an increase in prices may occur at least in those cities where the share of the merged company will be high.

The residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg will most likely be the first to feel the change in prices:

• First, these are the cities with the highest average income per inhabitant (in comparison with other regions of Russia).
• Secondly, here the price of a trip to Yandex.Taxi and Uber was initially higher than in other cities of the country. Thus, an average trip to Yandex.Taxi in St. Petersburg cost 300-400 rubles, while, for example, in Perm, a client could pay only 100-200 rubles. Uber also gave lower prices in the regions: from 60 rubles for a trip in the same Perm and from 150–200 in St. Petersburg.

The audience in large cities is less sensitive to price increases, and here a new company can make good money. Due to this, in other regions of the country, the cost is likely to remain low, which will allow you to have a competitive offer and increase your market share.

Competition is expensive

There are other prerequisites for combining the two services. It has become too expensive for each of the parties to compete: in a price war, traffic alone is not enough, you need to constantly attract external investment. Multimillion-dollar investments do not always pay off.

I believe that the parties have determined that when they merge, their own economy will work better for them, and the business will accelerate in development due to volume.

Remember? This has already happened

There are similar examples of successful mergers in the world. So, in the Chinese market, where in the summer of 2016 Uber teamed up with a major local player Didi Chuxing, he only won. Obviously, it was becoming more and more difficult and expensive for the American service to compete in the specific Chinese market, so the parties found common ground that worked for efficiency.

Global taxi markets are heavily occupied by strong local players. So, in China, Russia, India, the American service obviously had a hard time, so Uber opted for collaboration rather than fierce competition.

The freed up funds can be used by Uber to develop the product and develop its own autopilot, which will definitely create a strong advantage in the future.

What about Gett?

The merger with Uber could bring other changes as well. The rest of the market players will have to look for new ways of development, to adapt to the changing market conditions.

Gett "y, On the one side, it will become more difficult to develop in the market next to the combined company, because they will have fewer drivers. On the other side, he will be able to keep his audience due to the best market offer, on a small volume it is cheaper to provide a low cost of transportation.

Theoretically, Gett can also team up with other strong Russian players, for example, with RuTaxi services (Saturn, Lucky and Leader). In my opinion, the struggle for a large part of the market is just beginning.

A joint venture with Yandex to order a taxi in Russia has so far brought Uber only losses. The companies merged at the beginning of last year, but instead of making a profit, the transport giant missed $42 million. Why the Russian-American taxi service did not live up to the hopes of investors and passengers, 360 understood.

The American company Uber Technologies reported its earnings for 2018. According to tax records, she earned $11.3 billion for a net income of $997 million. At the same time, the operating expenses of the taxi aggregator increased by 8% compared to the previous year - up to three billion dollars.

One of these cost items was cooperation with the Russian partner Yandex.Taxi for the corporation. For the year, Uber made a net loss of $42 million after merging with Yandex. Currently, the American transport giant owns 38% in the enterprise. Under the terms of the deal, Uber has no right to sell its shares in the joint company without the consent of the Russian partner until 2021. Also, until 2025, the American company is prohibited from competing with Yandex in the CIS and opening its own taxi service.

The choice of these dates is not accidental, analysts interviewed by 360 explain. With the current traffic volumes and integration with other services, for example, Yandex.Food, the company will only be profitable by 2021, Timur Nigmatullin, an analyst at the market analysis department of Otkritie Broker JSC, believes. “Despite all the efforts of top management, the service still does not bring profit to its owners. Last year alone, its net loss exceeded 4.4 billion rubles. In fact, the company with a revenue of 19 billion rubles continues to be unprofitable, ”the source of 360 notes.

Meanwhile, the analyst does not exclude that in the next couple of years, the affairs of the joint Russian-American offspring will go uphill. “In the fourth quarter of last year, Yandex.Taxi showed a loss of only 129 million rubles. I do not rule out that in the first quarter of this year it will go to zero and show profit this summer or autumn. The merger with Uber has radically reduced competition in the taxi market in Russia. In addition, the adaptive period is over, so shareholders will soon begin to receive dividends from investments,” Nigmatullin is sure, emphasizing that a change in management strategy will help improve the company's performance.

The fact is that in terms of corporate governance, Uber also has a number of limitations. For example, the Americans do not have controlling influence on the board of directors, that is, Yandex can make key decisions without the consent of its overseas partners. In addition, the company is not represented in the management of the combined entity and is not involved in the day-to-day management of the field business.

Market for two

Photo source: RIA Novosti

Uber and Yandex.Taxi created a joint taxi ordering company in Russia and the CIS back in February 2018. Under the terms of the merger, passengers continued to order taxis in each of the applications, although drivers received orders through a single platform. Passengers can use taxi services not only on the territory of the Russian Federation, but also in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.

As 360 was told in the company's press service, at the moment Uber Russia has become available in 150 regions of Russia. “Investments in Uber Russia, including discounts for users, motivational programs for drivers and advertising, will exceed two billion rubles in 2019,” the representative explained, declining to provide information on the financial statements of the joint venture with Uber.

At the time of closing the deal, Uber and Yandex had invested $225 million and $100 million respectively in the project. In addition, Uber management issued two million of its shares to Yandex at a price of $26 a share. At the same time, a year later, the Americans were obliged to buy back these securities at twice the price - at $48 per share. As a result, Yandex can receive about $96 million in profit.

Despite the losses, the gap with Yandex is unprofitable for Uber, market participants surveyed by 360 are sure. According to the president of the Moscow Transport Union, Yuri Sveshnikov, Uber still does not have the tools to implement commercial transportation. “Initially, Uber was conceived as an intermediary between drivers and passengers and did not charge a significant fee for their pimping. Now, with the help of a commercial structure represented by Yandex, the American company has become a full-fledged taxi aggregator and is unlikely to give up such a status, at least in Russia, ”the 360 ​​interlocutor believes.

Timur Nigmatullin also speaks about the low probability of decay. According to him, in the event of disintegration, the two aggregators will enter into competition with each other, which will result in even greater losses for both. “Trying to get as many customers as possible, they will be forced to cut prices and carry passengers at a loss. Such a scenario is good for passengers, but not for companies,” the analyst concluded.

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Yandex.Taxi and Uber announced the closing of a deal to combine businesses in Russia and several CIS countries. Compared to previously announced plans, the valuation of the new company has increased by more than $75 million

Photo: Natalia Seliverstova / RIA Novosti

According to a message received by RBC, Yandex, Yandex.Taxi and Uber closed a deal to combine the business of companies in Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan.

In the combined company, Yandex received 59.3% of the shares, Uber - 36.9%, employees of the new structure - 3.8%. Uber invested $225 million in the new company, Yandex — $100 million.

Tigran Khudaverdyan, who previously headed Yandex.Taxi, became the CEO of the new company. The board of directors includes four representatives from Yandex and three from Uber.

The companies agreed to merge businesses in several CIS countries in July 2017. Initially, it was assumed that the distribution of shares in the company would be somewhat different: 59.3% of the new structure would belong to Yandex, 36.6% to Uber, and 4.1% to its employees. As a result of the deal, Yandex was supposed to receive a small stake in Uber's global business. At the end of November 2017, the deal was signed by the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

Initially, the cost of the merged company was estimated at $3.725 billion. The Yandex report states that now this figure is “estimated at more than $3.8 billion.” As the representative of "Yandex" explained, the new estimate was formed "taking into account the cash that the combined company will be able to dispose of." As a result of the closing of the transaction, her accounts will have more than $400 million.

As representatives of the companies previously explained, after the transaction, both of their applications will continue to exist. However, the merger should improve the quality of services of both companies. As their representatives explained, a single technological platform will be created for taxi companies and drivers, which should increase the number of cars available for order fulfillment, reduce the time for their delivery, reduce idle mileage, and increase the reliability and availability of the service as a whole.

The united company "Yandex.Taxi" and Uber will not only transport passengers, but also deliver food from restaurants - the UberEATS service was included in the deal. In addition, in December 2017, Yandex.Taxi closed a deal to buy food delivery service Foodfox. According to RBC, the purchase of Foodfox cost Yandex.Taxi about 500 million rubles.

According to the analytical center under the Russian government, the volume of the taxi market in Russia in the last couple of years has increased by 14.2% annually and in 2017 amounted to 575 billion rubles. The authors of the study call the group of companies "Vezet" the largest player in the market with a share of 12.3% - it was created by combining Fasten Russia taxi services (operating under the brands "Saturn" and RedTaxi) and "Vezet" (brands RuTaxi, "Leader", "Lucky"). The total share of Yandex.Taxi and Uber at the end of the year amounted to 10.4% of the market, which means that their combined structure will take second place in the market. It is followed by Maxim with 7.6% of the market, and then Gett with a 2.5% share. In general, aggregators still occupy only 32.8% of the taxi market in Russia, the remaining share falls on the traditional offline ordering market.

07/13/2017, Thu, 13:32, Moscow time , Text: Igor Korolev

Yandex has agreed to merge its taxi service with Uber. The united company will be controlled by Yandex and $325 million will be invested in it.

"Yandex" creates a joint venture with Uber

The Yandex company has agreed to merge the Yandex.Taxi service with Uber. The partnership will work in Russia, as well as in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan.

Uber will invest $225 million in the combined company, Yandex - $100 million. Control in the new structure will belong to Yandex - it will have 59.3%. 36.6% of the shares will be owned by Uber. Another 4.1% will be owned by the company's employees.

What will the combined company look like?

The united company will be headed by the CEO of Yandex.Taxi Tigran Khudaverdyan. According to the press release, the new company will leverage Yandex's technology and expertise in mapping, navigation and search services and Uber's global experience as the world's leading online transportation booking service.

This will create an even more dynamic and sustainable business that meets all the needs of users and drivers, and also helps to develop the transport infrastructure of cities and regions.

In the united taxi of "Yandex" and Uber the controlling stake will be received by "Yandex"

After the deal is closed, both apps for ordering rides, Yandex.Taxi and Uber, will continue to be available to users. At the same time, taxi fleets and drivers will switch to a single technological platform. As stated in the press release, this will increase the number of cars available for order fulfillment, reduce the time for their delivery, reduce idle mileage, increase the reliability and availability of the service as a whole.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2017. As part of the agreement, Yandex.Taxi agreed on roaming with Uber. Now tourists from Russia will be able to call a taxi abroad using the Yandex.Taxi application, and cars from Yandex.Taxi will be available to tourists from abroad using the Uber application. Uber's food delivery service, UberEats, will also be part of the partnership.

Chinese variant

Interestingly, a year earlier, in August 2016, Uber did in China by being taken over by local taxi startup Didi Chuxing.

Didi Chuxing is China's largest taxi ordering service headquartered in Beijing. According to Reuters, the share of the service in the taxi ordering services market in China is 55%. Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick(Travis Kalanick) in 2016 estimated the share of his company in the Chinese market at 30-35%.

The cost of the joint venture between Uber and Didi Chuxing was supposed to be about $35 billion. Uber China investors received a 20% stake in Didi. The Uber brand itself continued its presence in the Chinese market after the deal, and Didi Chuxing was supposed to invest $1 billion in the development of Uber in the US.

Taxi market estimates

According to VTB-Capital, the legal taxi market in Russia in 2016 amounted to 501 billion rubles. At the same time, according to the estimates of the Analytical Center under the Government, the gray taxi market amounted to 116 billion rubles. Thus, the share of the combined company in terms of revenue in 2016 would be 5-6% of the entire market.

Possible reasons for the merger

A source in the taxi market sees several reasons for Uber to merge with Yandex.Taxi. “Essentially, Uber invented the “bombed” market for the European Union and the United States, but in Russia it has existed for years. In addition, Uber has to face various problems in Russia: claims from the FAS and Roskomnadzor, requirements to work exclusively with licensed drivers, etc. For this reason, it was not easy for Uber to work in Russia.”

Due to the news about the merger of taxi services "Yandex" and Uber, "Yandex" shares reached an all-time high

In addition, partners need to join forces to advance in the regions. In Moscow, Yandex.Taxi is the leader in terms of the number of trips, Gett is in second place, and Uber is third. At the same time, in the whole country, the leaders are the services "Maxim", "Vezet" and Rutaxi, the source of CNews notes.

The combined company will have access to the combined capital, allowing it to strengthen its marketing efforts and offer various digital services. But whether tariffs will be reduced is a question, because such a step will require support from the drivers themselves, adds the source of the publication. Yandex did not comment on the issue of changes in the tariff policy.

Shares of "Yandex" reached a historical maximum

Immediately after the announcement of the creation of a joint company with Uber, Yandex shares began to rise in price.

By 14:00 Moscow time on July 13, 2017, their growth was 18%, and the price reached $27.72 on the Nasdaq exchange and 1.95 thousand rubles. on the Moscow Exchange, which, according to Vesti.Ekonomika, has become a historical maximum share price in the history of the company.

Toward evening, trading in Yandex shares on the Moscow Exchange was transferred to a special regime due to growth of more than 20%. Shares Yandex N.V. on the Nasdaq in New York rose by almost 16.5% compared to the previous reporting period and are traded at $31.83 per share. At the same time, the growth of securities quotes reached 18.7%, TASS notes.