Yandex float biggest Nasdaq listing since Google's
25 May 2011
According to analysts, Russian internet search company Yandex, which raised $1.3 billion from an IPO, has now acquired the clout to make an impact beyond the borders of its native Russia (See: Russia's Yandex debuts at a 38 per cent premium on Nasdaq).
The IPO was the biggest US internet listing following Google going public in 2004 and had been planned for long by its two founders - CEO Arkady Volozh and CTO Ilya Segalovich, who met as teenagers at school.
According to chief executive officer Arkady Volozh the company's success was representative of a new Russia that could boast of industry other than its energy.
Volozh said Russia was famous for its resources but Russia also had a lot of talent and deserved to have a technology company of a global level.
The IPO values the company at around $8 billion, however, the company's founding duo would retain most of their holdings.
The duo's rise is rather atypical of Russian billionaires who mostly built their empires during the 1990s on profits from a boom in commodities.
