R.H. Donnelley Buys Sprint Yellow Pages for $2.23B
Business-directory marketing firm R.H. Donnelley said Sept. 21 that it purchased Sprint's yellow pages business in a $2.23 billion deal, making itself the largest stand-alone publisher of yellow pages directories.R.H. Donnelley, Purchase, NY, now will publish about 260 directories in the 18 states Sprint operated its yellow pages division. Previously, R.H. Donnelley served as a sales agent for 41 Sprint directories in four states.
As part of the deal, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners 2000 invested $200 million in R.H. Donnelley through the purchase of company stock. The sale is expected to close in the first quarter of 2003.
Sprint's yellow pages have a total circulation of about 18 million. They serve about 156,000 local and 4,700 national advertisers. Sprint had the fifth-largest yellow-pages publishing business in the United States.