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Ilya Segalovich, co-founder of Yandex, Russia's largest search engine, died Saturday after being taken off life support, his company said. He was 48.

Segalovich, who was diagnosed with stomach cancer last September, died at a London hospital, the company said. Segalovich recently developed brain cancer and lapsed into a coma on Thursday. He was disconnected from life support on Friday after doctors determined he showed no signs of brain activity.

A tribute page (English translation) created by the company described Segalovich as "a scholar and a citizen with an active lifestyle... father of five children, friend, colleague, teacher and hilarious clown."

Segalovich, who served as the company's chief technology officer, founded Yandex in 1997 with Arkady Volozh, the company's chief executive officer. The company accounts for 62 percent of search engine traffic in Russia compared with Google's estimated 26 percent, according to ComScore. Worldwide, it ranks fourth, beating out Microsoft's Bing.

Yandex, which raised $1.4 billion in a Nasdaq IPO in 2011, is estimated to be worth $10 billion.