Usmanov Wants $1 Billion Stake in Russian Search Yandex

Quintura is reporting that the founder of Metalloinvest holding and owner of Kommersant publishing house, Alisher Usmanov is seeking a 10-20% stake in Russian search engine Yandex. Based on the current valuation for Yandex of $5 billion, this puts Usmanov’s stake at up to $1 billion.

Usmanov and his companies have minority stakes in the holding companies for mail.ru and Live Journal. This type of deal could put Usmanov into a strong position with the largest Russian mail provider and the largest Russian search engine. In case you were wondering, Yandex currently has 54% market share in Russian search while Google is at 19%.

Check out our exclusive interview with Yandex CTO Ilya Segalovich to learn more about the largest search engine in Russia.