Yandex delays Nasdaq IPO till “next year”

Written on 2nd September 2008                                                                                                              2 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

With the upcoming $1.5 billion to $2 billion IPO of Yandex, certainly the biggest tech IPO we would have seen in a while, the Russian search giant got a fair amount of attention lately. The Times published an (somewhat boring) interview with the founder, the blogosphere commented en masse on this story.

Some bloggers wondered whether Yandex would really consider to enter the stock market this fall, given the Russian-Georgian conflict. Would investors be willing to put their money where the war is? Turns out they probably don’t, because Yandex won’t take the bet this fall. 2009 will be the year of the IPO.

Profy notes this has allegedly been announced during a press conference, organized by one of the leading Russian investment funds – which is known for its multiple investments in IT companies. The valuation has become higher though, as it now circles around 3 to 5 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, Quintura reports about a funny follow up on Google’s act of desperation on the streets of Moscow. World’s largest search company spent half a million dollars earlier this year on billboards. Yandex now has its own version, called “Any Questions?”. Cool detail, users can create their own billboards. Here’s my try: