YP Holdings, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Thryv, is the American parent company for YP LLC. Its products include printed

telephone directories A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that ...

, yp.com and YP app. YP offers local search, display ads and direct marketing. On July 31, 2012, YP was included in PaidContent50's list of "the world's most successful digital media companies" based on 2011 digital ad revenue. The company was formed on April 4, 2012, preceding a formal announcement that

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

would sell off a 53% stake in its directory operations to

Cerberus Capital Management Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American global alternative investment firm with assets across credit, private equity, and real estate strategies.Leaders Magazine"Providing Economic Opportunity: An Interview with The Honorable Dan Qua ...

. Dex Media purchased YP Holdings LLC in 2017, officially announced in June 2017. It is responsible for the publication yp.com, YP app, the Gas Guru app, and more than 1,300 printed directories, published under the "YP The Real Yellow Pages" brand. It is headquartered in Tucker, Georgia.

History

YP Holdings, as a parent company, was founded in 2012 to take over the directory and online advertising businesses that were operated in the AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive divisions of AT&T.

SBC Yellow Pages

YELLOWPAGES.com, rebranded as YP.com in 2012, is an Internet web site operated by YP that employs sales representatives to sell preferred positioning on their site, YellowPages.com in addition to marketing additional products that move their clients' businesses toward the front of major web search pages. In 2002, SBC Communications dropped its regional telephone company names, switching to a unified "SBC" brand. As a result, the yellow pages operations were combined into one unit (retaining the separate companies) and took on the "SMART Yellow Pages" brand, retained from Pacific Bell Directory. Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages headquarters were utilized as central headquarters for all SBC Yellow Pages operations in St. Louis, MO at One Bell Center. In 2004, SBC sold complete control of the joint venture DonTech to R. H. Donnelley, the other co-owner. Telephone directories formerly published by SBC now became known as SBC Yellow Pages Published by R. H. Donnelley, and R. H. Donnelley's Illinois operations for SBC became known as the R. H. Donnelley Publishing & Advertising of Illinois Partnership. SBC merged Southwestern Bell Advertising, L.P. with Pacific Bell Directory's advertising division, creating SBC Advertising, L.P. As a result, "SMART" was eliminated as a nickname for all of the yellow pages operations, becoming simply SBC Yellow Pages. In 2004 SBC Communications and Bell South Corp. acquired YELLOWPAGES.COM, Inc. which operated as a joint venture between the two companies, until Bell South was acquired by in 2006. After 2004, R.H. Donnelley published printed directories in the names of SBC and subsequently AT&T in the area in and around Chicago, IL.

AT&T Yellow Pages

In 2005, SBC completed its acquisition of AT&T Corp., and renamed itself AT&T Inc. As a result, SBC Yellow Pages was renamed AT&T Yellow Pages, and the

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

edition was renamed "AT&T Yellow Pages Published by R. H. Donnelley". SBC Advertising, L.P. was renamed AT&T Advertising, L.P. AT&T directory publishing companies began doing business as either AT&T Yellow Pages (in reference to being a directory publisher) or AT&T Directory Operations (in reference to being a unit of AT&T).

AT&T Real Yellow Pages

On December 29, 2006, AT&T added BellSouth Advertising & Publishing Corporation, or "BAPCO" to its roster of directory publishers. As a result, in January 2007, all companies who had been doing business as AT&T Yellow Pages started doing business as AT&T Advertising & Publishing, while the AT&T Yellow Pages name was retained. On February 26, 2007, however, AT&T announced it would adopt

BellSouth BellSouth, LLC (stylized as ''BELLSOUTH'' and formerly known as BellSouth Corporation) was an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after ...

's directory branding, the Real Yellow Pages. All yellow pages directories published by

became published under the AT&T Real Yellow Pages name.

YELLOWPAGES.com

YELLOWPAGES.com LLC. became part of AT&T Interactive, following the AT&T acquisition of Bellsouth in 2006. YELLOWPAGES.com, rebranded as YP.com in 2009, as an Internet web site operated by YP. It employed more than 4,000 local marketing consultants and customer service professionals, and offered online presence, local search, display ads, and direct marketing. It was previously a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T.

Sale to Cerberus

On March 8, 2012, it was reported that AT&T had entered into talks to sell a controlling stake in its Yellow Pages business to

and

TPG Capital TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American private equity firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. TPG manages investment funds in growth capital, venture capital, public equity, and debt investments. The firm in ...

. The deal was estimated to be valued at $1.5 billion. Under the version of the deal reported in the press, AT&T would still own a minority stake in the company. On April 9, 2012, it was announced that AT&T would sell 53% of AT&T Advertising Solutions to

for $750 million. AT&T Advertising Solutions as a structural unit then became the company YP Holdings. Included in the sale is Yellowpages.com, YP mobile app as well as the printed directory division. AT&T will retain 47% ownership. Cerberus will assume $200 million of AT&T debt from the transaction. The sale came after AT&T began removing branding from its directories. In 2011, it removed the

trade name A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

s of its Bell Operating Companies (a practice adopted in 2002), reduced the size of the AT&T logo, and enlarged the "YP" logo of YELLOWPAGES.COM as the main logo of the directory. It also as renamed its directory "YP Real Yellow Pages". The sale made AT&T the last

Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the AT&T Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America fo ...

-related spin off to sell off its yellow pages business. Cincinnati Bell sold off CBD Media in 2002, Qwest sold Dex Media in 2002, SBC sold off

directory operations to R.H. Donnelley in 2004, and

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

sold Idearc Media in 2006. The deal with Cerberus officially closed on May 8, 2012.(2012-05-08)
AT&T Completes Sale of Advertising Solutions and Interactive Business Units to Cerberus
''

Business Wire Business Wire is an American company that disseminates full-text press releases from thousands of companies and organizations worldwide to news media, financial markets, disclosure systems, investors, information web sites, databases, bloggers, ...

''. Retrieved 2012-05-09. In 2013, YP rebranded to position itself in the field of

digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based Information technology, digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones, and other digital media and platforms to promote products and service ...

, and in 2015, its marketing operations has been rebranded to YP Marketing Solutions. Media Properties owned by YP LLC include: # YP.com (Yellowpages.com and mybook) # YP app (Gas Guru app) # Printed directories: The Real Yellow Pages directories and The Real White Pages directories # YP Marketing Solutions (YP for Business app)

Subsidiaries

AT&T transferred the directory publishing companies it owned to YP Holdings, as well as other companies that comprised AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive. These companies (with service regions) are organized as follows: *YP Holdings ** YP.com LLC **YP Marketing Solutions LLC

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yp Holdings 2012 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) American companies established in 2012 Telephone directory publishing companies of the United States Yellow pages Companies based in Tucker, Georgia