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November 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 20
Share of Sberbank joint venture with Mail.ru at 45%
Russia's largest bank Sberbank will hold a share of 45% in the joint venture with Mail.ru internet major, the chair of the bank Lev Khasis told the press, as cited by Vedomosti daily on November 7.
As reported by bne IntelliNews, Sberbank and Mail.ru set up a joint venture in the taxi and food delivery segment, but the shares of both companies were undisclosed.
Reportedly, both will hold 45%, with another 10% to be held by the management of both companies, according to Khasis.
After the JV deal Sberbank moved to signed
a non-binding agreement to acquire from Gazprombank a 35% stake in MF Tekhnologii, the owner of a 58.3% voting interest in Mail.ru. If the deal is completed then Sberbank would take control of 20.6% of voting rights and 1.8% of the economic interest in Mail.ru.
Previously Sberbank was intending to tie up with Russia’s tech leader Yandex, but the deal quickly fell to pieces and ended in divorce after only a year due to reported clashes between the management of the two organisations.
Google rents offices for research centre in Bucharest
Global tech group Google has rented an entire floor of about 1,000 sqm of offices in the Unirii View building near Unirii Square in downtown Bucharest, the tallest building in the centre of Bucharest, reportedly for a future research centre that will employ at least 50 people.
The future headquarters will be open next year. Until now, Google’s offices have been in the co- working spaces of Regus on Rosetti Street, near Magheru Boulevard, where about 15-20 people worked.
“We are investing in Romania and we are looking to expand further. We're moving to a bigger office, but we don't have more details to announce now,” said Gabriela Chiorean, Google's communications director for Central and Eastern Europe.
The news comes just days after Google announced it will take over smart wearable producer Fitbit, which also has a research centre in Bucharest with 200 employees. Google’s official turnover in Romania, reported by its local subsidiary Google Bucharest, was €4.4mn last year, 9% higher compared to 2017. The Google subsidiary in Bucharest had 15 employees last year.
Orange launches 5G services in Romania in partnership with Samsung
French telecom group Orange has launched commercial 5G services in Romania, under an exclusive partnership with Samsung.
Romania is the first country in the Orange group to benefit from such high tech commercial services, the company said in a press release.
"We have chosen Romania because it is sort of
a Silicon Valley in Central and Eastern Europe and because we have a radio spectrum double compared to our local competitors," said Ramon Fernandez, deputy general manager of Orange Group at a press conference in Bucharest, quoted by Profit.ro.
The 5G services were available starting November 5 to Orange Romania clients in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi. The Orange 5G network allows clients
to download data from the internet to compatible mobile devices at speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps.
“There are some very interesting elements to this launch,” Telecoms.com pointed out. First and foremost, the exclusive partnership with Samsung.