Dex Media Acquires YP Holdings to Create DexYP™, Expanding Its Thryv℠ Local Business Automation Software Nationwide
New 48-state sales organization to help local businesses compete and win in today’s on-demand, national-chain market
DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dex Media, Inc. today announced that it has acquired YP Holdings, a leading marketing solutions and search platform provider and publisher of the Real Yellow Pages® and YP.com. The combined company, to be called DexYP™ (“DexYP” or “the Company”), provides local business automation software and digital and print marketing products enabling local businesses to compete and win in today’s on-demand economy. The Company will offer its Thryv℠ business automation software and its marketing solutions suite to more than 700,000 small- to medium-sized business (SMB) clients with a footprint across the 48 continental United States.
DexYP expects to have pro forma net revenue of more than $2 billion in 2017, including over $1 billion in digital net revenue. The Company, which will be headquartered in Dallas, has thousands of sales representatives nationwide focused on helping local businesses. It will operate as a privately held company, with the former Dex Media executive team leading the organization. The transaction has received the necessary regulatory and other customary approvals for closing. Financial terms were not disclosed. The Company has released five-year financial projections:
| $millions | FY2017 | FY2018 | FY2019 | FY2020 | FY2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pro Forma Revenue, Net | $2,327 | $1,964 | $1,865 | $1,820 | $1,804 |
| Adjusted Pro Forma EBITDA | $537 | $520 | $511 | $518 | $519 |
| Adjusted Pro Forma EBITDA Margin % | 23.1% | 26.5% | 27.4% | 28.5% | 28.8% |
“DexYP will help businesses across America survive and thrive,” said DexYP CEO Joe Walsh. “Both of our companies have a long history of helping local independent business owners. Now, as DexYP, we will enable these entrepreneurs, the backbone of the U.S. economy, to compete and win against big-box national chains and on-demand service providers. We will arm them with the same business automation software that big enterprises use. We already have nearly 30,000 customers using this powerful software, modernizing the way they do business, and with our thousands of sales reps nationwide, we can now deliver this capability to businesses everywhere. Today’s acquisition is good for local businesses and their consumers across America.”
Mr. Walsh continued, “Today’s transaction underscores our commitment to serving America’s local businesses. We will enable them to acquire and retain customers and digitize and automate their business functions. And we will continue to deliver these clients the high quality leads they covet through our market-leading search, social, display, and online and print directories. Indeed a majority of DexYP’s revenue will be derived from digital products, giving us a growing digital audience to whom we will have greater opportunities to sell our best-in-class digital solutions, while enhancing our ability to manage our print directories business profitably.”