Posts Tagged ‘AT&T’

AT&T Lets The Walking Fingers Take a Walk – Selling Stake in Yellow Pages

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

AT&T has decided to sell a 53% stake in its Yellow Pages unit to Cerberus Capital Management for $950 million.

Jennifer Fritzsche, an analyst with Wells Fargo, referred to the valuation as “sensible” at roughly 2.1 times an estimate for EBITDA, “given that the directory business is declining fairly quickly.”

Beyond “sensible”, AT&T may have well decided that they would incur undue risk of intervention from state and federal regulation authorities if they had pushed for a much higher valuation. I had earlier suggested it would be grossly irresponsible if AT&T overvalued their Yellow Pages, and, after Verizon’s divestment of Idearc/SuperMedia, I’m not sure another company could get away with an unreasonably high price tag. (more…)

AT&T Selling Off Yellow Pages Unit?

Friday, February 24th, 2012

AT&T (NYSE: T) appears to’ve obliquely referred to their YP unit as a “low-performing” “non-strategic asset”, and signaled that they might sell it off.

If this sequence of events sounds familiar, it is — because Verizon did this when they spun off their Yellow Pages to form Idearc.

It’s a little disappointing to see AT&T likely planning to divest itself of Yellowpages.com and their print directories, because only in January of last year it had seemed possible that they might have toyed with the idea (more…)

AT&T Opens Mobile App Incubator In Texas

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

AT&T Mobile Phone App DevelopmentThe Dallas News reports that AT&T has officially opened a new center in Plano, Texas, to help mobile app developers create and launch their work.

“The AT&T Foundry in Plano is a slick, high-tech workspace designed to connect developers with experts already employed at the telecommunications giant.”

Plano is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

If you’re unaware, AT&T’s yellow pages division moved a couple of years back from San Antonio to Dallas, and their global headquarters is located here as well. They also have interactive offices in California which work on some of their social media initiatives along with the YP.com site.

I’m supposing that this is to put AT&T in an advantageous position for (more…)

What’s Happening In Yellow Pages Land? Perhaps A Trifecta Merger Between AT&T, SuperMedia & Dex One

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Back in September I predicted a merger between SuperMedia and Dex One. However, there’ve since been other developments and rumors coming out of these yellow pages companies which lead me to suggest a possible “trifecta” — a three-way acquisition/merger could be in the works between AT&T’s Yellow Pages (NYSE:T), SuperMedia (NASDAQ:SPMD), and Dex One (NYSE:DEXO).

Trifecta Merger Between AT&T Interactive Yellow Pages, SuperMedia, and Dex One Corporation

These three companies operate some of the largest print and online yellow pages in the country, with AT&T Interactive operating YP.com, SuperMedia operating Superpages, and Dex One operating DexKnows. Read on for more speculation and observation on my part. (more…)

AT&T’s Yellowpages.com Rebranding To YP.com

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Greg Sterling called attention to AT&T Yellowpages.com’s apparent rebranding project which will use “YP.com” as their dominant online site/brand going forward.

YP.com the new Yellowpages.com

While I’ve been openly critical of some of AT&T directories’ decisions in the past, I think this is definitely a smart move. I think there’s sufficient indication that the concept and recognition of the “Yellow Pages” brand is becoming obsolete. It would appear that AT&T agrees with me, since this amounts to a major tectonic shift in their branding. (more…)