Yellowpages.com

YELLOWPAGES.com, rebranded as YP.com in 2009 as an Internet web site operated by YP. It employs 4000 salespeople, and offers a broad range of marketing ploys including online presence, local search, display ads and direct marketing. It was previously a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T.

History

In late 2004, BellSouth Corp and SBC Communications Inc. purchased www.YellowPages.com Inc. reportedly for US $120 Million. The companies formed a joint venture to run the business. The two companies had been working together on another joint venture called Cingular, a wireless carrier in the US. Each company had its own Online Yellow Pages: BellSouth owned RealPages.com and SBC owned SmartPages.com. The two sites effectively merged into the newly acquired YellowPages.com.

In 2005, SBC acquired AT&T and took on the stronger AT&T brand. One year later, AT&T acquired Bellsouth for US $67 Billion. At this point, the YELLOWPAGES.com business was no longer a joint venture, instead, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, also doing business as AT&T Interactive.