Maxima Legal and Nextons represented the sellers in the deal for Yandex’s acquisition of eLama advertising platform

Yandex has finalised the acquisition of eLama, a technology platform that allows advertising campaigns to be run across 19 internet systems, including Yandex, VK and Telegram. Maxima Legal and Nextons acted as legal advisors to the sellers. The lawyers provided support during the preparatory activities and co-ordinated the contractual documentation required to close the transaction.

As a result of the deal, eLama will be taken over by Yandex, but will retain its brand and team, the platform’s clients will retain access to all the usual tools, and co-operation with partner sites will continue on the same terms. In addition, the deal will allow Yandex’s advertising services to be better adapted to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses, which will eventually receive new tools for advertising management (they will be created on the basis of eLama’s experience and using Yandex’s neural network technologies).

Maxim Gorbachev, one of the founders and sellers of eLama platform: ‘We are grateful to our legal advisors for their professional support during the preliminary integration period and preparation for closing. With their direct support, we were able to fulfil the conditions required to complete the transaction and conduct the closing in the shortest possible time.’

Alexey Zakharko, Managing Partner at Nextons: ‘We were pleased to continue our co-operation and act as an advisor on the next stage of this complex and multifaceted transaction. This project is another example of successful work of our M&A teams. Nikita Deynega made a significant contribution to the success of the project, as he demonstrated an excellent understanding of the platform’s internal processes and took on the role of coordinating the efforts of the client’s internal services.’

Nikita Deynega, Partner at Maxima Legal: ‘Our assistance during the pre-integration period was a logical continuation of work on the main deal and required consolidation of efforts of eLama’s internal services and external consultants. We are pleased that we were able to ensure that all the necessary preparatory conditions were met and that the closing was completed in the shortest possible time. We are honoured to have represented the sellers in this challenging transaction. It was a unique and rewarding experience and we are grateful for the clients’ trust. We also thank our colleagues at Nextons, who proved to be true professional partners and took on a significant front of challenging work.’

Nextons team working on the transaction was led by Managing Partner Alexey Zakharko. The main transactional lawyer was Sergei Gurdzhian, Counsel, with active support from Dmitry Mikryukov, Senior Associate of M&A practice, and Irina Stepanova, Counsel.

Maxima Legal team was led by Nikita Deynega,Partner, with the support of Tax and Administrative Law practice specialists – Sergei Tarasevich, Associate,  and Valeria Gulyakina, Junior Associate.