Baby Bells SBC Communications and BellSouth let their fingers do the signing today—on the dotted line of a joint venture to purchase online phone directory YellowPages.com.
The second- and third-largest U.S. telcos closed the deal for YellowPages.com only one day after announcing their intention to combine the acquired business with their own online directory affiliates, SmartPages.com at SBC and RealPages.com at BellSouth.
In announcing the deal, the regional phone carriers said they expect the combination of the brand recognition of the Yellow Pages name and YellowPages.com URL with their own directories’ capabilities to create “a leading provider of nationwide, online yellow pages and Internet local search” that will receive more than 50 million consumer searches per month.
“To be a leader in online yellow pages, you need two things: traffic and strong local advertising relationships,” said Dennis Payne, president and CEO of SBC Directory Operations. “This new venture gives us both.”
The new company, to be headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., will generate sales among national advertising accounts, while the SBC and BellSouth directory divisions retain management of accounts in their respective territories. Charles Stubbs, currently vice president for strategy with BellSouth Advertising and Publishing, will become YellowPages.com president and CEO.
The joint venture is the second major operational pairing of BellSouth and SBC, which joined forces several years ago to create the Cingular Wireless network
