Yellow Pages Group

Last updated

Yellow Pages Group
Company type Public
TSX:  Y
Founded1908;116 years ago (1908)
Headquarters Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Key people
David Eckert
Number of employees
628
Subsidiaries Yellow Pages Canada
Canada411
Website corporate.yp.ca/en/

Yellow Pages Group (YPG) (Groupe Pages Jaunes (GPJ) in French) 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, [1] [2] and still print phone books on a limited basis to some customers as of 2024.

Contents

YPG is the incumbent directory publisher in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, British Columbia, the Territories, and Atlantic Canada, and also publishes regional community directories in Saskatchewan.

History

Yellow Pages Canada was established in 1908 as a division of Bell Canada. In 1971, it was renamed to Tele-Direct Inc. [3] In 1999, the company changed its name to Bell Actimedia Inc. to reflect a closer alliance with Bell. [4]

In 2002, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the Ontario Teachers' Merchant Bank acquired control of Yellow Pages Group, with Bell Canada retaining 10% ownership. [3] In August 2003, YPG had its initial public offering which raised over $1 billion, and established YPG as an income fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange (YLO.UN).[ citation needed ] In 2009, Yellow Pages Group was chosen as one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, Montreal's Top Employers, and Financial Post's 2009 "Ten Best Companies to Work For". [5]

In 2010, YPG announced that, based on urban customer habits and the decline of phone books as a result of the internet and smartphones, they would stop delivering residential phone books to customers in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Gatineau, and Quebec City, with deliveries only being resumed on request. Most customers there were urged to use the online Yellow Pages directories instead. [6] Through 2011 and 2012, YPG lost 90% of their share value, prompting a major restructuring toward digital marketing that saw shares triple in value but also led to several layoffs. [7] In 2015, YPG's phone book delivery cuts expanded to include Brampton, Mississauga, and Oakville, with the company continuing to analyze developing trends for potential further cuts for certain markets (namely Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Elmira, Fergus, Hawkesbury, and Lethbridge) and locations such as high-rise buildings; however, a company statement assured YPG did not plan on fully discontinuing printed phone books, as many customers still relied on them, primarily seniors. [7] [8]

By 2018, Yellow Pages phone books were still being printed for customers in Halifax, Nova Scotia, primarily to profit from advertising, but residents who did not use them were noted to simply throw them away at the expense of the city and the environment, prompting YPG to include recycling tips in newer editions. [9] Yellow Pages Canada still prints and publishes phone books as of 2024, but they are notably rarer and slimmer, and are largely sustained by elderly customers and advertising revenue. [10]

Acquisitions

In 2010, YPG acquired Vancouver-based Canpages for $225 million. [11]

In 2015, YPG acquired Vancouver Magazine and Western Living magazine from TC Media. [12]

Controversies

In 2017, CBC Radio reported that small business owners were disappointed with YPG's search engine optimization services, which allegedly failed to achieve high placements on search engine results, and in some cases did not bring website traffic at all, yet still demanded large payments by locking them into contracts and threatening them with lawsuits and collection notices, [13] which continued well into 2019 and 2021 as reported by Business in Vancouver . [14] [15] [16] In 2019, Calex Legal Inc. filed a class action lawsuit in Quebec against YPG involving thousands of small businesses. [17]

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References

  1. ↑ "Find local businesses, products, reviews and deals on YellowPages.ca - YP.ca". YellowPages.ca. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  2. ↑ "New Canada 411". Canada 411. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  3. 1 2 "Yellow Media Inc. - About Us". Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved July 28, 2009.
  4. ↑ Archived December 28, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Leung, Kristina (4 October 2010). "Jobs at Yellow Pages Group". Eluta.ca. Retrieved 28 December 2015.
  6. ↑ "Yellow Pages cuts delivery of residential phone book". CTV News Ottawa. 3 June 2010. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  7. 1 2 Evans, Pete (3 February 2015). "Yellow Pages ending home delivery in some areas of Canada". CBC News. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  8. ↑ Marowits, Ross (2 February 2015). "Yellow Pages to end home-delivery of print directories in some areas". Global News. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  9. ↑ "A new direction for an old directory: The future of phone books". CTV News Atlantic. 25 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  10. ↑ "'I Google': Why phonebooks are becoming obsolete". CTV News. 16 April 2024. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  11. ↑ "Yellow Media to buy Canpages". CBC News. 30 March 2010. Retrieved 24 March 2024.
  12. ↑ "Why Yellow Pages bought Vancouver and Western Living magazines". BC Business. 3 June 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  13. ↑ "Des entrepreneurs déçus par Pages Jaunes". CBC Radio-Canada (in Canadian French). 24 January 2017. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  14. ↑ "Canadian businesses blast Yellow Pages' ad practices". Vancouver Is Awesome. 15 January 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  15. ↑ "Canadian businesses blast Yellow Pages' ad practices". Business in Vancouver. 15 January 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  16. ↑ "Yellow Pages continues to face 'pattern of complaints'". Business in Vancouver. 11 June 2021. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  17. ↑ "UPDATED: Class action against Yellow Pages to proceed in Quebec". Business in Vancouver. 19 March 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
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