Developers of Max discussed transferring it to a third-party entity, but after the EU sanctions that plan 'lost all meaning' — The Bell

The developers of Max discussed transferring it to a third-party entity, but after the EU sanctions that plan 'lost all meaning' — The Bell

At the beginning of June, after Apple removed Max from the App Store, VK, which owns the messenger, began discussing what to do next, a source close to the company told The Bell.

One option assumed that the messenger could be "rewritten" under a third-party developer not connected to VK. Transferring the messenger to the state was also discussed.

However, after the EU imposed sanctions and Max was also removed from Google Play, those discussions "lost all meaning," The Bell writes. The journalists explain this by citing the sanctions' rationale, which said that Max had been developed under the control of the FSB — and with such wording, transferring the messenger to anyone else still would not have made it possible to return it to the app stores.

"There is already little that can be done now. They will be 'repainting' the apps and reassigning them to other legal entities, the way banks do," says a source close to the company.

Another idea is to use a website that launches as an app. "This is, essentially, the only working option," another The Bell source added.

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