YP Holdings
| Type | Private (Joint venture) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Advertising |
| Predecessor(s) | AT&T |
| Founded | April 4, 2012 |
| Headquarters | Tucker, Georgia, United States |
| Key people | David Krantz, CEO |
| Products |
online advertising Telephone directories |
| Parent |
Cerberus Capital Management (53%, 2012-present) AT&T (47%, 2012-present) |
| Subsidiaries |
YELLOWPAGES.COM YP Connecticut Information Services YP Midwest Publishing YP Southeast Advertising & Publishing YP Texas Region Yellow Pages YP Western Directory |
YP Holdings is the parent company for YP, LLC, an online advertising company and directory publisher. Its products include telephone directories for AT&T (yellow pages), yellow pages on line (yp.com) and the YP mobile app. They also sell a variety of other advertising products which include direct mail, and advertising on mobile devices. On July 31, 2012, YP was included in PaidContent50's list of "the world's most successful digital media companies" based on 2011 digital ad revenue. [1]
The company was formed on April 4, 2012 preceding a formal announcement that AT&T would sell off a 53% stake in its directory operations to Cerberus Capital Management.
It is responsible for the publication of 1,250 directories, published under the YP Real Yellow Pages name. It is headquartered in Tucker, GA.
History
YP Holdings, as a parent company, was founded in 2012 to take over the directory and online advertising businesses that were operated in the AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive divisions of AT&T. The directory business previously operated by Ad Solutions has had several incarnations.
SBC Yellow Pages
In 2002, SBC Communications dropped its regional telephone company names, switching to a unified "SBC" brand. As a result, the yellow pages operations were combined into one unit (retaining the separate companies) and took on the "SMART Yellow Pages" brand, retained from Pacific Bell Directory.
Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages headquarters were utilized as central headquarters for all SBC Yellow Pages operations in St. Louis, MO at One Bell Center.
In 2004, SBC sold complete control of its joint venture with R. H. Donnelley, DonTech, to R. H. Donnelley. Telephone directories formerly published by SBC now became known as SBC Yellow Pages Published by R. H. Donnelley, and R. H. Donnelley's Illinois operations for SBC became known as the R. H. Donnelley Publishing & Advertising of Illinois Partnership. SBC merged Southwestern Bell Advertising, L.P. with Pacific Bell Directory's advertising division, creating SBC Advertising, L.P. As a result, "SMART" is eliminated as a nickname for all of the yellow pages operations, becoming simply SBC Yellow Pages.
AT&T Yellow Pages
In 2005, SBC completed its acquisition of AT&T Corp., and renamed itself AT&T Inc. As a result, SBC Yellow Pages was renamed AT&T Yellow Pages, and the Illinois edition was renamed "AT&T Yellow Pages Published by R. H. Donnelley". SBC Advertising, L.P. was renamed AT&T Advertising, L.P. AT&T directory publishing companies began doing business as either AT&T Yellow Pages (in reference to being a directory publisher) or AT&T Directory Operations (in reference to being a unit of AT&T).
As of November 20, 2006, following Verizon spinning-off Idearc Media, AT&T Yellow Pages became only directory operation of a Baby Bell to not be spun off (with the exception of Illinois).
AT&T Real Yellow Pages
On December 29, 2006, AT&T added BellSouth Advertising & Publishing Corporation, or "BAPCO" to its roster of directory publishers. As a result, in January 2007, all companies who had been doing business as AT&T Yellow Pages started doing business as AT&T Advertising & Publishing, while the AT&T Yellow Pages name was retained.
On February 26, 2007, however, AT&T announced it would adopt BellSouth's directory branding, the Real Yellow Pages. All yellow pages directories published by AT&T will now be published under the AT&T Real Yellow Pages.
As of November 2008, AT&T Advertising & Publishing changed its unit name to AT&T Advertising Solutions, following the inclusion of the electronic directory YP.com to its existing print directory publishers.
Sale to Cerberus
On March 8, 2012, it was announced that AT&T has entered talks to sell a controlling stake in its Yellow Pages business to Cerberus Capital Management and TPG Capital. The deal was estimated to be valued at $1.5 billion.[2] Under the version of the deal reported in the press, AT&T would still own a minority stake in the company.[3]
On April 9, 2012, it was announced that AT&T would sell 53% of AT&T Advertising Solutions to Cerberus Capital Management for $750 million. AT&T Advertising Solutions as a structural unit then became the company YP Holdings LLC. Included in the sale is Yellowpages.com, YP mobile app as well as the printed directory division. AT&T will retain 47% ownership. Cerberus will assume $200 million of AT&T debt from the transaction.[4]
The sale came after AT&T began removing branding from its directories. In 2011, it removed the trade names of its Bell Operating Companies (a practice adopted in 2002), reduced the size of the AT&T logo, and enlarged the "YP" logo of YELLOWPAGES.COM as the main logo of the directory. It also as renamed its directory "YP Real Yellow Pages published by AT&T".
The sale makes AT&T the last Bell System-related spin off to sell off its yellow pages business. Cincinnati Bell sold off CBD Media in 2002, Qwest sold Dex Media in 2002, SBC sold off Illinois directory operations to R.H. Donnelley in 2004, and Verizon sold Idearc Media in 2006.
The deal with Cerberus officially closed on May 8, 2012.[5]
Subsidiaries
AT&T transferred the directory publishing companies it owned to YP Holdings, as well as other companies that comprised AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive. These companies (with service regions) are organized as follows:
- YP Holdings LLC
- YP Connecticut Holdings Corp.
- YP Midwest Holdings Corp.
- YP Southeast Holdings Corp.
- YP Texas Region Advertising Group LLC (non-AT&T customers in Arizona and Nevada)
- YP Advertising LP (co-owned with YP Western Directory)
- YP Texas Region Yellow Pages LLC (Southwestern Bell)
- YP Western Holdings Corp.
- YELLOWPAGES.COM LLC (YP.com)
References
- ↑ paidContent50: The world’s most successful digital media companies, PaidContent.org, July 31, 2012.
- ↑ AT&T in talks to Sell Yellow Pages Stake to Cerberus, TPG, The Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2012. Accessed March 10, 2012.
- ↑ AT&T Makes the Call, Plans to Sell Yellow Pages, International Business Times, March 8, 2012. Accessed March 10, 2012.
- ↑ AT&T to Sell Yellow Pages to Cerberus, The Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2012. Accessed April 10, 2012
- ↑ (2012-05-08). AT&T Completes Sale of Advertising Solutions and Interactive Business Units to Cerberus Business Wire. Retrieved 2012-05-09.
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