Russian Internet Firm Leads IPO Pack – Wall Street Journal

BY LYNN COWAN

Eight initial public offerings will make their U.S. debuts this week, but there’s one standout: Russian Internet search engine Yandex NV.

Consumer Internet stocks are a hot commodity now, especially following LinkedIn Inc.’s stellar initial public offering last week, during which its shares doubled on the first day. Though Yandex isn’t in the same coveted social-media space as LinkedIn, it lays claim to some impressive bragging rights in the search-engine game: It is bigger than Google Inc. in Russia.

At 64% of the Russian market vs. Google’s 22%, Yandex is a major force in one of the few countries in …