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| Industry | Print and Interactive Marketing |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Dallas, Texas, US |
| Parent | Inc. |
| Website | www |
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.
In April 2013 Dex One merged with SuperMedia, and the combined company (after further acquisitions) now does business as Thryv Inc.
Dex One Corporation was originally established as the R.H. Donnelley Company in 1886 by Reuben H. Donnelley, son of RR Donnelley founder Richard R. Donnelley. R.H. Donnelley primarily contracted with The Chicago Telephone Company to publish telephone directories for Chicago telephone customers. In 1906, the company began contracting with Bell System firms such as New York Telephone, Wisconsin Telephone, and Cincinnati Suburban Telephone Co.
In 1917, The R.H. Donnelley Company was incorporated and moved to New York City, retaining some offices in Chicago. In 1929, Reuben Donnelley died; his company remained and continued to contract with the Bell System to publish telephone directories nationally.
In 1961, R. H. Donnelley became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dun & Bradstreet.
Following its merger with Dun & Bradstreet, the company began a series of partnerships with additional telephone companies to publish directories. Around this time, competition started with other phone companies to provide directories.
From 1980 to 1985, R.H. Donnelley began a partnership with United Telephone (Sprint), called Uni-Don, to publish telephone directories to customers in central Florida.
In 1986, it contracted with NYNEX to become its directory sales agent. The same year, R.H. Donnelley started publishing directories in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in competition with Bell Atlantic, although a lot of these areas were later sold off to Yellow Book.
In 1988, it formed Cen-Don with Centel (now part of CenturyLink) to publish telephone directories in Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia. Venture One was formed with Southwestern Bell Corporation, which published directories in competition with Bell Atlantic in Baltimore, MD and Washington, D.C.
In 1990, DonTech was formed with Ameritech to publish telephone directories in Illinois and northwest Indiana.
On July 1, 1998, Dun & Bradstreet split into two companies, one assuming the Dun & Bradstreet name, while the other adopting the R.H. Donnelley name.
In 2002, R.H. Donnelley acquired Sprint Directory Publishing, the publishing unit of Sprint Corp.
In 2003, R.H. Donnelley Publishing & Advertising, Inc., which published directories under the EMBARQ Yellow Pages name, was acquired from the Sprint Corporation.
In 2004, R.H. Donnelley acquired the directory publishing business of SBC Communications in Illinois and northwest Indiana, along with the SBC interest in DonTech. As a result, R.H. Donnelley gained a 50-year licensing agreement to use the SBC Yellow Pages name on all directories published for SBC Illinois customers. Following the AT&T merger, the directories were known as "AT&T Yellow Pages published by R.H. Donnelley". [1]
In 2006, R.H. Donnelley completed its acquisition of Dex Media, which had been spun off from Qwest in 2002-2003. Following the acquisition, R.H. Donnelley became the third largest directory publisher in the United States. [2]
In January 2007, R.H. Donnelley bought Local Launch Search Marketing [3] to add strength to its online marketing division for its yellow pages.
In July 2007, R.H. Donnelley bought Business.com. [4]
On December 31, 2008, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) suspended trading of R.H. Donnelley because the company's market capitalization was less than $25 million for 30 consecutive trading days, which failed to meet the Exchange's listing standards. As a result of this suspension, R.H. Donnelley began trading its common stock over-the-counter (OTC) on the Pink Sheets beginning on January 2, 2009, under the symbol "RHDC". [5]
In June 2009, R.H. Donnelley Corporation and its subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy. [6] In February 2010, R.H. Donnelley Corporation emerged from bankruptcy as Dex One Corporation.
On February 1, 2010, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) started trading 50 million Dex One Corporation shares under the "DEXO" ticker symbol.
On August 21, 2012, Dex One and SuperMedia announced a stock for stock merger transaction. The merger closed on April 30, 2013. [7] The new company is called Dex Media (not to be confused with the original Dex Media). [8]
The merger reunites directory operations formerly part of Ameritech in Illinois, Verizon, and Qwest, all of which haven't been under common ownership since the Bell System divestiture in 1983.
The Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC) are the result of United States v. AT&T, the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the former American Telephone & Telegraph Company. On January 8, 1982, AT&T Corp. settled the suit and agreed to divest its local exchange service operating companies. Effective January 1, 1984, AT&T Corp.'s local operations were split into seven independent Regional Bell Operating Companies known as the Baby Bells.
AT&T Teleholdings, Inc., formerly known as Ameritech Corporation, is an American telecommunications company that arose out of the 1984 AT&T divestiture. Ameritech was one of the seven Regional Bell Operating Companies that was created following the breakup of the Bell System. Ameritech was acquired in 1999 by SBC Communications, which subsequently acquired AT&T Corporation in 2006, becoming the present-day AT&T.
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.
The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation is an American company that provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, the company offers a wide range of products and services for risk and financial analysis, operations and supply, and sales and marketing professionals, as well as research and insights on global business issues. It serves customers in government and industries such as communications, technology, strategic financial services, and retail, telecommunications, and manufacturing markets. Often referred to as D&B, the company's database contains over 500 million business records worldwide.
Houston Cellular was a Houston-based cell phone company which provided AMPS and D-AMPS (TDMA) service in the Greater Houston area. It was formed in 1983 and was operated as a partnership between LIN Broadcasting Corp., Mobile Communication Corp. of America and BellSouth Co. Its headquarters were located in Houston, Texas.
The breakup of the Bell System was mandated on January 8, 1982, by a consent decree providing that AT&T Corporation would, as had been initially proposed by AT&T, relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies, which had provided local telephone service in the United States. This effectively took the monopoly that was the Bell System and split it into entirely separate companies that would continue to provide telephone service. AT&T would continue to be a provider of long-distance service, while the now-independent Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), nicknamed the "Baby Bells", would provide local service, and would no longer be directly supplied with equipment from AT&T subsidiary Western Electric.
Michigan Bell is the subsidiary of AT&T serving the state of Michigan. Following the Bell System divestiture on January 8, 1984, the company became a subsidiary of Ameritech, the Regional Bell operating company that served the midwestern United States. Ameritech was subsequently acquired by SBC Communications, which later changed its name to AT&T.
Illinois Bell Telephone Company, LLC is the Bell Operating Company serving Illinois. It is owned by AT&T through AT&T Teleholdings, formerly Ameritech.
The Ohio Bell Telephone Company, now doing business as AT&T Ohio, is the Bell Operating Company serving most of Ohio and parts of West Virginia. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T.
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.
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.
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.
SBC Long Distance LLC is a long-distance telephone company owned by AT&T that does business as AT&T Long Distance. SBC Long Distance competes with other long-distance providers who provide service within some of the Bell Operating Company service boundaries of AT&T. SBC Long Distance is a separate subsidiary than AT&T Communications, the incumbent long-distance carrier for most of the country acquired in the SBC merger with AT&T.
Centel Corporation was an American telecommunications company, with primary interests in providing basic telephone service, cellular phone service and cable television service.
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.
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's third largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third-largest provider of mobile telephone services in the U.S. As of 2023, AT&T was ranked 13th on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations, with revenues of $120.7 billion.
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.
 United States Telephone Directory Publishers | |
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