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

By the middle of this year, Yandex plans to close a deal to buy eLama technology platform that allows to run advertising campaigns in 19 internet systems, including Yandex, VK and Telegram.

Maxima Legal and Nextons are acting as legal advisors on the sellers’ side. At the current stage, the firms supported the negotiations and ensured the agreement of the contractual documentation required to close the transaction. As a result of the deal, eLama service will be taken over by Yandex, but will retain its brand and team, as well as receive additional opportunities for scaling and business development.

Maxim Gorbachev, one of the founders and sellers of eLama platform: “We are grateful to our legal advisors for their professional support during the negotiation process and preparation of the agreement. With their direct support, we were able not only to formalise the parties’ agreements, but also to work out the terms and conditions to ensure a balance between the interests of the sellers and the buyer, without which the transaction would have been impossible.”

 Alexei 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 multilateral transaction. This project is another example of our M&A team’s successful work in buying and selling technology companies. 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: “We are honoured to represent the sellers in this challenging transaction and we are pleased that, among other things, our efforts helped the parties finally reach the agreement at this stage of the transaction. This is a unique and rewarding experience, and we are grateful to our clients for their trust. We would also like to thank Nextons, which lawyers proved to be true professional partners and took on a significant amount of complex work”. 

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

Maxima Legal team was led by Nikita Deynega, Partner, supported by Tax & Administrative Law practice specialists – Sergey Tarasevich, Associate, and Valeria Gulyakina, Junior Associate.