Forum Moderators: bakedjake
SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC) and BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS) today announced that their directory affiliates have created an Internet yellow pages joint venture that has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the online directory publisher www.yellowpages.com, Inc. The deal is expected to close as early as today. The new venture will utilize the highly recognized YellowPages.com brand and expects to become the market leader in Internet yellow pages and local Internet search.
Another article about this from ZDnet, with more information
[news.zdnet.com...]
I wonder how that will play into this.
I wonder how that will play into this.
[edited by: stuntdubl at 7:26 pm (utc) on Nov. 4, 2004]
People are/will be used to a single place to search for everything from the local dentist to the vacation in south africa! .
Lets see , everything will be clear in 2-3 years :)
Hope springs eternal.
The aquisition and formation of the new company is based on trying to get a hold of the local search biz. Both companies said yesterday that the Yahoo! and Google local search had no bearing on their decision but that they had been speaking for the past year and YellowPages.com made intimations that they were willing to be aquired. They refused to announce figures but it seems as though someone at the WSJ is saying it was around $100m
They are just starting to get the new company together next week and have not ruled out any further partnerships.
TGN
Notice when you sign in for a Yahoo ID they ask for your zip code. And when you call about your SBC phone service, given half a chance they try to set you up with Cingular with almost irresistable package deals.
SBC/Yahoo is just about turning into Microsoft. Looks like they'll by anything or make an acquisition of anything that can't run away on its own two feet.
Added:
Don't know thousands of what, I didn't read the article that came through; but their phone customer support is oursourced offshore, and has been for quite a while.
I have to agree. Their data is not that great. Not sure what they have that is worth all that money.
If the 100M is even close to the right number, it will be the largest price ever paid for a domain.
At Kelsey there were people saying this all the time with a smile.
SBC is laying off workers by the thousands.
Not sure what kind of workers they are laying off. One thing that the YP have is a sales force knocking on doors every day. With the combination of those sales forces - (if I remember it right I think it is about 30,000) technology aquisition of an enterprise search platform to get content for their advertisers, and partnerships with other local content and partnerships with the Yahoos and Googles (Who both had their Local Search leaders at the conference and said that they were willing to make content partnerships) they could build a bit of a powerhouse in the busines to consumer search space.
The combination of their structured data with unstructered data from the internet it is a very viable business plan going forward if they do it right.
They seem happy with the revenue share they have worked out for the internet part of business they do but it is early days.
Their customers (the advertisers) seem happy to pay the YP people a monthly fee. They see it as a cost of doing business. I personally can't remember the last time I used the Yellow Pages. Verizon just did the YP drop in my building a week ago and their are piles of them not moving from the mailbox area.
At the same confernce earlier this year in Santa Clara the YPs were talking about selling "buckets of clicks" to their advertisers. This seems to have faded into the background now. I am not exactly sure if my local dry cleaner has a web site. I know he comes to my building every morning to pick up the dry cleaning from the concierge, he brings it back the next evening. The only time I contact him if one of my shirts are missing and that has happened once in the last 8 years. I wouldn't dream of looking him up on the internet.
I am not sure about the future of YPs - but having a sales force on the street, with a current relationship, is something Google and Yahoo would love but be impossible.
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Most regular online shoppers have experienced the moment of frustration when they've found every conceivable detail about the item they want to buy -- except the name and number of a local retailer.
For those interested it is only 3 AdAge paypoints:
[adage.com...]
Sukhinder (the brilliant mind behind Google Local)called the yellowpages.com URL a red herring.This is about the combined salesforce and market posturing in the face of a changing local search landscape.
Bell south's recent partnership with Google marks the first such reseller agreement of its kind for Google. Yet, it will not be the last, as Sukhinder also pointed out the YPs are in a special position in the local search arena due to their sales proximity to SME (namely 600K paying advertisers -in the case of bell south alone). Google's mouth is watering.
Another important note is that Smart and Real are regionalized entities. YellowPages.com is national brand. And when you are bound by unionized sales forces in your regions and the lack of consumer adoption of your iyps outside of your traditional footprints, it only makes sense to hedge your bets with a brand that is not bound by geography. Finally, what this deal also represents is a sharing of advertisers on the smart and real properties. Amongst the majors, it is much easier to share advertisers and revenues and provide a better user experience with more comprehensive results sets, than it is to go at it alone.
Now that Bell South sells Google, i presume Smart will sell Google too, and what about the 100+ YellowPages.com sales reps? Is Google the secret winner here?
Being a reseller of Yellow and Smart, and being in negotiations with Real, we are watching closely to see how these cards fall.
The 1984 AT&T breakup
Anti-trust laws
SBC's hiring/firing practices
Let's keep this on topic. Thanks.
One of the problems may be the classic dilemma of a quasi-monopolist: new technologies often threaten their existing revenue sources. This is why these firms were slow to rollout DSL, and continue to be slow in cutting DSL prices.
If they are smart, they will move very aggressively (e.g. giving online ad space away to their print advertisers) to offer local search and directory services. To date, there is no sign they are capable of competing effectively with Google, et. al. Joining forces isn't going to make a difference unless they get smarter with their core strategy and improve their technology.
If you wish to defeat the evil YP empire you must learn to use the force, young jedi Webwork, use the force....
In summary, Bellsouth SBC will fold their online directories into YellowPages.com in the next 18 months. They will continue to market to local businesses with their sales force, and will purchase PPC to direct web visitors to their site.
The article also states that many SMEs are reluctant at this point to embrace online advertising/marketing.
PS: You may have to register to read the article.
