Russia’s Yandex has agreed to sell its news aggregation platform and Zen infotainment service, as well as the main page where both services have been located, to VK.
In return, it will acquire 100% of the food delivery service Delivery Club.
VK is one of Russia’s largest social media businesses and has until now been one of Yandex’s strongest competitors. It is majority owned by Sogaz, whose main shareholder is Yury Kovalchuk.
Meanwhile, Yandex has until now been referred to as “Russia’s Google”.
In a statement, Yandex said that its best interests are served by pursuing a strategic exit from its media businesses (other than entertainment streaming), while continuing to focus on other technologies and services, including search, advertising, online-to-offline transactional businesses and a number of B2B technology businesses, among others.
Following the completion of the transaction, which is subject to anti-monopoly approval in Russia and expected to close in the coming month, the current main page with News and Zen will be renamed dzen.ru and will be controlled and further developed by VK (including control over the content and look & feel).
The related News and Zen brands and technologies will be also transferred to VK.
