How it started
Formation
Formed in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1999, the company was named SPB Software House, but removed the word "House" in 2008. The company released its first mobile application in 2001 and went on to win the Pocket PC Developer Of The Year Award 2003 by Handango. The company subsequently won the same award from Handango in 2006, 2007, and 2009. SPB Software went on to develop mobile apps for a variety of platforms and expanded its title lineup to include games, utility apps and mobile OS shells. SPB Software is now developing apps for all of the major mobile phone manufacturers. SPB Software also works with phone makers and mobile operators in various countries to develop customized versions of its software and optimized applications for particular devices.
Acquisition
On November 28, 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that Yandex NV, operator of Russia’s most popular Internet search engine, acquired SPB Software "to expand mobile products and the use of its search capabilities on mobile devices." The CEO of SPB Software, Sebastian-Justus Schmidt, was appointed as EVP Mobile and General Manager by Yandex.
From Wikipedia’s article on SPB Software, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2