Smart rearrangement – Newspaper Kommersant No. 148 (7349) dated 08/16/2022

Sberbank has changed the name of a company that develops smart speakers, set-top boxes and other gadgets with the Salyut voice assistant, deleting the word Sber from it. The bank explains the decision by expanding its product portfolio, but Kommersant’s sources admit the possibility of selling the unit, which, due to sanctions, has encountered problems in accessing foreign technologies and components. Experts consider the exit from non-core assets a logical step for Sberbank, which can focus on more profitable fintech. The bank itself promises to continue investing in technology.

Kommersant found in the SPARK-Interfax database that SberDevices LLC (develops the SberPlay game console, Salyut TV smart TVs, SberBox video and TV set-top box, SberPortal smart home display, as well as “smart” speakers SberBox Time, light bulbs, sockets and other devices) in mid-July changed its name to SalyutDevices LLC.

The press service of Sberbank assured Kommersant that it was only about renaming the legal entity: “The decision was made in connection with the expansion of the Salyut voice assistant product portfolio strategy through B2B solutions.” But Kommersant’s sources in the market believe that the renaming may be due to the restriction of the company’s work under the sanctions. They claim that SberDevices “actually lost the opportunity to purchase foreign IT solutions in the required volume.”

According to one of Kommersant’s sources, Sberbank is also considering a more serious distancing from SberDevices, noting that Russian IT and telecom companies are showing interest in buying the division. Another interlocutor of Kommersant adds that Sberbank is going to focus on the development of its core business: “The bank will formally withdraw from everything non-core, so the development of the range of smart and other consumer devices is curtailing.”

A Kommersant source claims that “employees are already starting to quit” from SberDevices. According to HeadHunter, over the past year, there were 3.3 thousand employees on the service with work experience indicated in the resumes of SberDevices or SberTech, of which 1.7 thousand did not have a job search status, 203 were actively searching, 376 were considering offers and 1050 are not looking for work.

Sberbank objects that SberTech and SberDevices remain “key areas”. “We continue to invest in the creation of advanced products and solutions for the bank’s clients and businesses,” the bank explained.

In February, Sberbank came under US sanctions, which mean blocking all assets and accounts of credit organizations in US dollars and de facto isolation from the dollar system. Also, sanctions against Sberbank were imposed by the EU and the UK, after which the credit institution was disconnected from the SWIFT system. American marketplaces for Google Play and the App Store have begun removing Sberbank services from their platforms. In May, Sberbank sold the assets that formed its core ecosystem (SberZvuk, Okko, Okko Sport, SberCloud and MDG) to little-known JSC New Opportunities, which also came under UK sanctions in June.

According to M.Video-Eldorado, in the first half of the year, the columns from Sber took fifth place in the Russian market after Station Light with the voice assistant Alice, Yandex, VK with Marusya, Xiaomi with Marusya “and JBL with “Alice”. In total, in the first half of the year, 780 thousand smart speakers were sold in the Russian Federation for 6 billion rubles. According to MegaFon, in their network from January to August, sales of smart devices from SberDevices grew by 25% in units. A source in the electronics market notes that after the imposition of sanctions, a number of Sberbank’s “smart” devices stopped working, except for speakers, set-top boxes and SberPortal: “Sbera sockets, light bulbs, switches worked on the foreign TUYA communication protocol, which no longer works in Russia “.

TelecomDaily CEO Denis Kuskov emphasizes that, despite Sberbank’s attempts to compete with the Yandex or Tinkoff ecosystems, its main business “still remains in the banking sector.” The analyst connects the separation of non-core assets and exit from them not only with the impact of sanctions, but also with the optimization of investments: “Obviously, in the current economic conditions, Sberbank decided to focus on the main and most profitable segment — fintech.”

Timofey Kornev