Russia’s largest search site, Yandex, has finalised a deal to buy the national road traffic information service SMIlink for an undisclosed amount. Seventy-employee SMIlink, started by VessoLink seven years ago, collects traffic info via phone calls, police sources etc and packages it for media outlets as well as GPS mapping operators like Navteq and TeleAtlas. The deal will go through in July and SMIlink said on its site it will help it better do its job of collecting and distributing that data. The pair already partnered back in 2006 to offer a Moscow traffic maps service on Yandex itself so the search portal must see some value in SMIlink itself beyond just the JV. Via release.