Uber borgs with Yandex's ride-sharing biz in Russosphere

Uber is getting a little bit of help in Russia and five other countries.

Today, the lawsuit-ridden Valley dream announced that it's merging its ridesharing business in and around Russia with Yandex, the local search engine giant. The new company will be called "NewCo" and operate in 127 cities.

Covered countries include Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus and Georgia, according to a press release. Claimed advantages: "shorter passenger wait times", "increased driver utilization rates" and "higher service reliability".

Yandex began operating Yandex.Taxi in the region in 2011, and has connected "tens of millions of riders and drivers", according to a statement from chief exec Tigran Khudaverdyan.

Uber put down $225m for a 36.6 per cent stake in NewCo, while Yandex put down $100m and gets about 59.3 per cent (the remainder goes to company employees).

Uber is also going to use its UberEATS food delivery scheme in NewCo.

Once the merger is finalised by the usual closing rules (expected in Q4 of 2017), ride-hailers can keep using the Yandex and Uber apps until they're integrated. ®