Yandex IPO: Short by LinkedIn Yardstick
NEW YORK, (
) --
Yandex
(YNDX) - Get Report
, Russia's top Internet search shop, saw a stock jump of more than 40% on its U.S. trading debut Tuesday.
In what will likely be seen as further evidence that new tech stocks are in big demand on Wall Street, Yandex's IPO got off to a healthy start, at one point more than doubling off its $24 initial price.
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The arrival of Yandex comes less than a week after
(LNKD)
-- a social network for business people -- made its roaring IPO debut.
After an initial spike to $61 early Tuesday, Yandex shares retreated and were trading at $35.37, up 41% at midday.
Yandex, which is Dutch-based, operates search engines throughout Russia where it has about 64% of the market. That dominance often draws comparisons to
(GOOG) - Get Report
in the U.S., which has more than 60% of the search business.
Earlier this week, Yandex's bankers priced the initial shares in the offering at $21, and by Tuesday the price was set at $24. The company and its shareholders sold about 52.2 million shares and raised roughly $1.3 billion from the offering.
Among the risks for investors in Yandex is the uncertain political and economic conditions in Russia. For example, during the one-year 2008-2009 global financial crisis, Yandex's advertising revenue fell 26%; by comparison Google's 2009 sales growth only slowed to 8% from the 32% pace in 2008.
--Written by Scott Moritz in New York.To contact this writer, click here: Scott Moritz, or email: scott.moritz@thestreet.com.Follow Scott on Twitter at MoritzDispatch
