YP CEO David Krantz wanted to dispel a widely held notion when we spoke with him late last week about the company he now runs, newly acquired from AT&T by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.
“This is not a cash-flow, harvest the business approach,” he said, perhaps referring to the reputation of YP’s new …

AT&T has finalized the sale of 53 percent of its Yellow Pages operation to the private equity firm Cerberus Capital, which has launched YP Holdings LLC. The new company will be led by newly appointed CEO David Krantz, who had been running AT&T Interactive, the digital arm of AT&T’s directories business.
The remainder of the leadership …

AT&T has sold a 53 percent stake in its Yellow Pages business to the private equity firm Cerberus Capital for $950 million. This works out to a valuation of $1.8 billion. The deal involves both the Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive operations.
Significantly, AT&T has elected to hang onto 47 percent of the business. AT&T may …

Bloomberg News is reporting today that AT&T is close to a deal to sell a majority stake in its Yellow Pages operation (AT&T Advertising Solutions, the world’s largest directory company, in a deal that prices the business at US$1.5 billion. This price works out to a multiple of 1.5X EBITDA. AT&T is expected to hang on …

On yesterday’s AT&T earnings call, CEO Randall Stephenson opened the door to the possibility that the telecom giant would sell off its directories business.
Here is what Stephenson said on yesterday’s earnings call: “That’s one area that we’re going to obviously take a very hard look at, and while I don’t want to give any indication …

AT&T Interactive announced this week the launch of in-app ads on its mobile ad network, an extension of YP Local Ad Network. In-app local ads are served within mobile apps based on a user’s location. Earlier this year, AT&T Interactive piloted in-app advertising and reported generating more than 750 million local ad impressions in three months. …

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 …

Mobile now accounts for a third of AT&T’s local search, according to AT&T President and CEO David Krantz, who was speaking at the Borrell show last week in New York. “We truly believe that mobile is bigger than the Web,” said Krantz, noting that AT&T has some significant head starts over rivals as a vertically …

The Wall Street Journal reported this week that AT&T Interactive will join the growing list of directory companies to launch a daily deal site. AT&T Interactive CEO David Krantz told The Journal that he believes AT&T could be “fast followers” and that there is still ample opportunity in the daily deals space, initially popularized by …

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 …

AT&T Interactive has launched a substantial redesign of its YP.com online directory with the aim of making the site an easier and more compelling user experience, with a clear theme around supporting consumer lifestyles (hence its structure of Eat, Play, Live). AT&T is touting several features of the new design, which they say has been …

Here is a summary of recent, noteworthy developments in the global Yellow Pages space:
Following an industry trend, U.K.-based Yell has begun distribution of a truncated Yellow Pages directory in a three-pronged effort to save paper, reduce waste and meet changing user needs. Recent consumer research underscores a desire for a book smaller in dimension. The …

Earnings results from global Yellow Pages companies are starting to trickle in, and so far, 2010 looks a lot like 2009, or worse.
AT&T Advertising Solutions posted first-half revenues of US$2,048 million, down 16.7 percent from the same period in 2009. At the same point in 2009, revenues were down 11.5 percent. The company reported …

AT&T released its full-year 2009 earnings today, and its Advertising Solutions unit, which includes print Yellow Pages and Yellowpages.com, posted total revenues of US$4.8 billion, a 12.6 percent decline.
AT&T online directories unit Yellowpages.com grew 12.7 percent in Q4, compared with Q3 growth of 20.7 percent. Total online revenues for the year were US$884 million, which …