LivingSocial, in a battle with Groupon and other deal providers to gain (and keep) market share, lost an eye popping $558 million beyond its $245 million in net earnings, according to a regulatory filing by Amazon.com, which owns 31 percent of the company. The filing was written about in today’s Washington Post.
The Post article notes …

The European directory and local search operator Truvo has taken major steps toward consolidating around its flagship Belgian operation. On Dec. 22, Truvo “divested” its operation in Ireland, selling it to Contact Holdings, which operates Yellow Pages companies in the Baltic States. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Truvo has also dramatically curtailed its senior …

Yelp’s S-1, which was issued last week as a run-up to a $100 million IPO, reveals a lot of new data about the reviews leader. The big question about Yelp has been whether it can grow against increased pressure from Google, and also begin to take market share away from traditional media players such as …

Last week several of the leading listed directory companies saw sizable spikes in their stock prices following their Q3 earnings announcements, though the surge seems to have died off today.
For example, Dex One announced its earnings on Nov. 3. On the call, CEO Alfred Mockett revealed that Dex will not achieve its previously stated goal of …

Image Source: Mashable
Groupon’s greatly reduced IPO is apparently set to take place on Friday, Nov. 4, in an environment much less friendly than originally envisioned last spring.
The bloom has come off for a number of reasons. Groupon has almost no barriers to entry and has had to contend with dozens and dozens of copy cats …

TargusInfo, a major direct marketing tools provider and the parent company of Localeze, a “Big 3″ provider of business listings, will be acquired by NeuStar for $650 million in cash. The deal enhances NeuStar’s positioning as a leader in authentication services across the Internet and voice networks, whether fixed-line, cable or mobile. Authentication is expected …

Yell Group announced its full-year 2011 results this week (its year ends March 31), with digital media revenues growing by 9.4 percent from last year. CEO Mike Pocock projected during the full-year earnings call that by 2015, 75 percent of Yell’s products will be digital, with the remaining 25 percent in print. However, Pocock emphasized that …

 
2010 was a dismal year for the New Zealand branch of Deutsche Bank after exposure to the Yellow Pages Group restructuring. The KPMG Financial Institutions Performance Survey issued last week shows that Deutsche ranked at the bottom out of 10 New Zealand branch banks on key measures, including a $53 million loss for the financial year, …

First-quarter 2011 earnings reports are trickling in across the global Yellow Pages industry, and while the results are still largely negative, there are some signs that the rate of revenue decline is leveling off. This is consistent with what BIA/Kelsey has forecast for the Yellow Pages industry — a leveling off of print declines leading …

Following a discussion of its 2010 full-year results, Dex One’s leadership team outlined a new strategy today that it says will restore the company to positive revenue growth by the second half of 2012, with print stabilizing to single-digit declines.
One of the key elements will be the Dex Guaranteed Actions, a performance-based model tested beginning …

Listened to the replay of Yell Group’s Q3 earnings call yesterday, which was my first opportunity to hear the company’s new CEO, Michael Pocock, in action. Pocock joined Yell in November, eventually replacing longtime CEO John Condron, who retired. He inherited a company with a rapidly declining core business and an uncertain future as a …

Thus far, 2011 is revealing some notable announced transactions that could be signs of renewed interest in buying radio and television stations. The BIA/Kelsey monthly transactions report, which details the number of stations sold and their value, shows a marked increase in the month of January. Is it a sign that the station trading marketplace …

The economy is showing signs of strength outside of the weak employment gains. Consumers are spending and advertisers are taking notice. To attract these new purchases, advertisers are spending more in many different local media. And given that the outlook looks a promising, the values of the public media companies are showing strong growth.
Since the …

Last night, Local Insight Media’s parent company filed for Chapter 11 protection. In speaking with President and CEO Scott Pomeroy early this morning, it became clear that this is a necessary step in ensuring the business can recapitalize its debt structure in the coming months.
Few followers of the Yellow Pages industry will find today’s announcement …

It’s Yellow Pages earnings season again. AT&T is usually among the first out with its results, and the latest numbers show a worsening picture for its Advertising Solutions business, which includes print Yellow Pages and yp.com. The results are compounded by very modest growth in Internet revenues, an area that AT&T is counting on to stabilize the …

Eniro has replaced Jesper Karrbrink as CEO of the Swedish directory company with Johan Lindgren, former CEO of Telenor Sweden.
Eniro’s board is apparently frustrated at the pace of improvement resulting from the new strategy put in place by Karrbrink. In addition, Eniro has violated loan covenants, and may feel it needs a management team that …

The U.K. directory publisher Yell’s stock had its best day of trading in months, leading to speculation that the company might be a takeover target. Another report suggests the increase may not be the result of a takeover bid, but rather of traders closing short positions. Yell’s shares rose by more than 13 percent Thursday …

The Australian directories company Sensis has released its full 2010 financial year results (ending June 30) and the results show the company is resilient, though print revenues are clearly coming under increasing pressure. The company generated A$2.1 billion in revenue for the year. On an adjusted basis, revenues declined by 2.9 percent.
Sensis’ print revenues …

In case you missed them, here are a few headlines and links to recent posts on our Global Yellow Pages blog. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed here, and the e-mail alert here.
– New Yellowbook Campaign Embraces Multiproduct Approach
– DexOne See Signs of Hope, Concern in Business Environment
– Yell Launches Targeted Facebook Ads
– SuperMedia Sees 2Q Improvement, Launches QR Codes

DexOne (the company formerly known as R.H. Donnelley) announced its first-half results this morning, and as with SuperMedia, there were signs of life amid otherwise negative results. The key number to watch for directory publishers is ad sales. DexOne’s first-half ad sales were down 13 percent, and the company says ad sales were stronger in …