Yandex Says Nyet to Google and Da to Nasdaq

Arkady Volozh, the founder and chief executive officer of Russia's dominant search engine, Yandex, seems comfortable being the outsider. He's one of Moscow's wealthiest people yet still drives his own car, a Volvo SUV, in a city of chauffeured Bentleys and Maybachs. Despite Russia's penchant for nepotism, for years Volozh refused to hire his oldest son and insisted he find a job on his own. He "is not very ostentatious or grandiose at all, which is why he wears well," says Esther Dyson, a venture capitalist and Yandex board member.

He may be tempted to live a little larger after May 24, when Yandex is expected to raise around $1 billion in an initial public offering on Nasdaq (NDAQ). Most of Russia's successful companies are those that dig—for oil, nickel, aluminum. Others are tainted by accusations of corruption or intellectual-property theft. Yandex seems to be an exception: a homegrown market leader that leveraged Russia's math and engineering talent in pursuit of technological breakthroughs. According to research group LiveInternet, its search engine now accounts for 64 percent of the Russian market to Google's 23 percent, and Yandex is hinting at ambitions abroad. For foreign investors, the question will be whether the Kremlin leaves the company alone.