VK's stock plummeted to an all-time low after its services were removed from the App Store

On the Moscow Exchange, shares of the VK holding company fell to an all-time low, reaching 183.4 rubles per share. This happened after the American corporation Apple unilaterally and without warning removed all of the company’s key services from the App Store, including “Zen,” VK Video, VK Messenger, and “Odnoklassniki.” 

Over the past 24 hours, the market capitalization of the holding company—which also develops the state-backed messaging app Max—fell by 5.5%, and the overall decline since the start of the week has accelerated to 23%.

Since the beginning of the year, VK’s market value has fallen by 39%, which amounts to 73 billion rubles ($986 million). Overall, since its IPO in December 2021, the company’s shares have lost 80% of their value. Despite extensive government support and the lobbying capabilities of holding company CEO Vladimir Kirienko, the total loss in market capitalization has reached 425 billion rubles. Apple’s press office explained to journalists that the removal of Russian software is directly related to compliance with current legal regulations regarding international sanctions.

Source: The Moscow Times.

Apple has removed a number of apps from the Russian holding company VK from the App Store, including “VKontakte,” Mail.ru, VK Video, VK Music, VK Messenger, “Zen,” and “Odnoklassniki.”

The Russian messaging app Max has disappeared from the international section of the Huawei AppGallery.