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Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Online Advertising |
Predecessor | AT&T |
Founded | April 4, 2012 |
Headquarters | Tucker, Georgia, U.S. |
Key people | Jared Rowe (CEO) |
Products | Digital Advertising Print Directories Web Design Listing Management Video Creation Local Search Ads SEO SEM Direct Marketing Display Marketing |
Parent | |
Subsidiaries | Yellowpages.com YP Connecticut Information Services YP Midwest Publishing YP Southeast Advertising & Publishing YP Texas Region Yellow Pages YP Western Directory |
Website | http://yellowpages.com/ |
YP Holdings, now a wholly owned subsidiary of DexYP, is the American parent company for YP LLC. Its products include printed telephone directories, yp.com and YP app. YP offers local search, display ads and direct marketing. 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. Dex Media purchased YP Holdings LLC in 2017, officially announced in June 2017. [2]
It is responsible for the publication yp.com, YP app, the Gas Guru app, and more than 1,300 printed directories, published under the "YP The Real Yellow Pages" brand. It is headquartered in Tucker, Georgia.
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.
YELLOWPAGES.com, rebranded as YP.com in 2012, is an Internet web site operated by YP that employs sales representatives to sell preferred positioning on their site, YellowPages.com in addition to marketing additional products that move their clients' businesses toward the front of major web search 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 the joint venture DonTech to R. H. Donnelley, the other co-owner. 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" was eliminated as a nickname for all of the yellow pages operations, becoming simply SBC Yellow Pages.
In 2004 SBC Communications and Bell South Corp. acquired YELLOWPAGES.COM, Inc. which operated as a joint venture between the two companies, until Bell South was acquired by in 2006.
After 2004, R.H. Donnelley published printed directories in the names of SBC and subsequently AT&T in the area in and around Chicago, IL.
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).
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 became published under the AT&T Real Yellow Pages name.
YELLOWPAGES.com LLC. became part of AT&T Interactive, following the AT&T acquisition of Bellsouth in 2006.
YELLOWPAGES.com, rebranded as YP.com in 2009, as an Internet web site operated by YP. It employed more than 4,000 local marketing consultants and customer service professionals, and offered online presence, local search, display ads, and direct marketing. It was previously a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T.
On March 8, 2012, it was reported that AT&T had entered into 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. [3] Under the version of the deal reported in the press, AT&T would still own a minority stake in the company. [4]
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. 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. [5]
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".
The sale made 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. [6]
In 2013, YP rebranded to position itself in the field of digital marketing, and in 2015, its marketing operations has been rebranded to YP Marketing Solutions.
Media Properties owned by YP LLC include:
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:
Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) was a corporate entity created as result of the antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice against the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1974 and settled in the Modification of Final Judgment on January 8, 1982.
BellSouth, LLC was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S. Department of Justice forced the American Telephone & Telegraph Company to divest itself of its regional telephone companies on January 1, 1984.
The yellow pages are telephone directories of businesses, organized by category rather than alphabetically by business name, in which advertising is sold. The directories were originally printed on yellow paper, as opposed to white pages for non-commercial listings. The traditional term "yellow pages" is now also applied to online directories of businesses.
Hibu Inc., formerly Yellowbook Inc., is a provider of web development and hosting, digital listings and reputation management, search engine and social media marketing, and digital advertisements. Hibu is headquartered in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Business.com is a digital media company and B2B web destination which offers various performance marketing advertising, including lead generation products on a pay per lead and pay per click basis, directory listings, and display advertising. The site covers business industry news and trends for growth companies and the B2B community to stay up-to-date, and hosted more than 15,000 pieces of content as of November 2014. Business.com operates as a subsidiary of the Purch Group since being acquired in 2016.
Trader Corporation is a Canadian technology company based in Toronto specializing in classified automotive advertising. The company's flagship product is AutoTrader, an online marketplace for buying and selling new and used vehicles. The company is owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo. The company was originally a part of Trader Classified Media, which was founded in 1987 by John MacBain. Trader Corporation’s current CEO and President is Sebastian Baldwin.
Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Incorporated, is the Bell Operating Company serving Indiana. It is an indirect subsidiary of AT&T Inc., owned by AT&T Teleholdings.
Dex Media, Inc. was a print and interactive marketing company. It was formed in 2002 by a consortium led by The Carlyle Group to acquire the operations of QwestDex from Qwest Communications International. The company went public in 2004 and was acquired by R.H. Donnelley in 2006, which became DEX One in 2010.
Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American global alternative investment firm with assets across credit, private equity, grocery stores, paramilitary groups, and real estate strategies. The firm is based in New York City, and run by Steve Feinberg, who co-founded Cerberus in 1992, with William L. Richter, who serves as a senior managing director. The firm has affiliate and advisory offices in the United States, Europe and Asia.
YP Western Directory LLC, formerly Pacific Bell Directory, was the advertising and publishing division of the Pacific Telesis Group. PBD Holdings held Pacific Bell Directory under its umbrella, who published directories in both Nevada and California.
Yellowpages.com is a United States–based web site operated by Thryv that provides listings for local businesses. In 2013, it was re-branded as YP.com or simply "YP". It currently offers a broad range of marketing tools including online presence, local search, display ads and direct marketing. It was previously a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T.
YP Texas Region Yellow Pages LLC is a division of YP Holdings that publishes telephone directories to Southwestern Bell customers for AT&T.
Windstream Holdings, Inc., also doing business as Windstream Communications is a provider of voice and data network communications, and managed services, to businesses in the United States. The company also offers residential broadband, phone and digital streaming TV services to consumers within its coverage area. It is the ninth largest residential telephone provider in the country with service covering more than 8.1 million people in 21 states.
Dex One Corporation was an American marketing company providing online, mobile and print search marketing via their DexKnows.com website, print yellow pages directories and pay-per-click ad networks in the U.S.
Electronic Yellow Pages are online versions of traditional printed business directories produced by telephone companies around the world. Typical functionalities of online yellow pages include the alphabetical listings of businesses and search functionality of the business database by name, business or location. Since Electronic Yellow Pages are not limited by space considerations, they often contain far more comprehensive business information such as vicinity maps, company profiles, product information, and more.
Yellow Pages Group (YPG) is a Canadian telephone directory publisher and digital marketing firm founded in 1908 and headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. Historically known for distributing yellow pages phone books across Canada, into the 21st century YPG has primarily shifted to digital marketing services, though they also operate the YellowPages.ca local business search engine and Canada411 online phone directory, and still print phone books on a limited basis to some customers as of 2024.
YP Connecticut Information Services LLC, originally SNET Information Services, Inc., was the directory publishing arm of Southern New England Telecommunications. It is currently owned by YP Holdings and publishes telephone directories for Southern New England Telephone customers under the YP Real Yellow Pages name.
YP Midwest Publishing LLC., originally Ameritech Publishing, Inc., was formed in 1983 during the Bell System Divestiture. It combined the former directory operations of Illinois Bell, Indiana Bell, Michigan Bell, Ohio Bell and Wisconsin Telephone. Ameritech Publishing published telephone directories in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Directories in Illinois were made in a joint venture with R. H. Donnelley.
The history of AT&T dates back to the invention of the telephone. The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell, who obtained the first US patent for the telephone, and his father-in-law, Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Bell and Hubbard also established American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1885, which acquired the Bell Telephone Company and became the primary telephone company in the United States. This company maintained an effective monopoly on local telephone service in the United States until anti-trust regulators agreed to allow AT&T to retain Western Electric and enter general trades computer manufacture and sales in return for its offer to split the Bell System by divesting itself of ownership of the Bell Operating Companies in 1982.
Thryv Holdings, Inc. is a publicly traded software as a service (SaaS) company, providing customer relationship management and online reputation management software for small businesses. It has headquarters in Dallas, Texas, and operates in 48 states across the United States of America with more than 2,400 employees. The company began as a conglomerate of Yellow Pages companies. In June 2020, Thryv reported $1.3 billion in revenue over a twelve-month period.