AT&T backing out of phone directory business
By Scott Moritz, Bloomberg
AT&T Inc. agreed to sell a majority stake in its Yellow Pages directory division to Cerberus Capital Management LP for about $950 million as part of an effort to dispose of units that are holding back revenue growth.
AT&T will receive $750 million in cash and a $200 million note, according to a statement from the Dallas-based phone carrier today. AT&T will keep a 47 percent stake in the business, which had about $3.3 billion in revenue in 2011.
The sale lets AT&T, which hung on to its Yellow Pages division as competitors fled the business, to reduce its exposure to a unit facing increasing competition from online rivals Google Inc., Groupon Inc. and Yelp Inc. To boost sales, AT&T, the biggest U.S. phone company, is focusing on its mobile- phone business, where it trails Verizon Wireless.
