Yellow Pages Limited (formerly Yellow Pages Income Fund and Yellow Media) is a Canadian publication and internet services company that owns and operates Canadian properties and publications including Yellow Pages directories, YellowPages.ca, and Canada411.ca. Its online destinations reach approximately 9 million of unique visitors monthly and its mobile applications for finding local citizens, downloaded over 3 million times. The company was founded following the buyout of Bell Canada's directory business and subsequently acquired SuperPages Canada, the directory publisher for Telus.
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| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| TSX: Y | |
| Industry | Media |
| Headquarters | 1751 Richardson St., , |
Number of employees | 608 |
| Website | corporate |
In October 2008, Yellow Pages was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc. and was featured in Maclean's newsmagazine, the only directory publisher to receive this honour.[1]
In March 2011, Yellow Pages sold Trader Corporation to funds advised by Apax Partners for $745 million.[2] Its ticker symbol changed from YLO to Y in 2012.[3]
On January 16, 2018, it was announced that Yellow Pages would cut 18% otherwise, one fifth of its workforce. That very same day, approximately 500 employees were laid off nation-wide. According to its new CEO David Eckert, such measures were essential to ensure short-term financial health of the company, whose stock price took a significant nosedive over the year 2016–2017.
Its headquarters is located at 1751 Richardson Street in Montreal, Québec.
Dividend controversy
editYellow Media is considered by some Canadian financial writers to be a prime example of why investors should be skeptical of high dividend yields.[4] In 2011, the company maintained a high dividend yield despite close scrutiny,[5][6] before finally cutting dividends and taking a stock price hit.[7]
References
edit- ^ "Reasons for Selection, 2009 Canada's Top 100 Employers Competition".
- ^ Robin Wauters. "Yellow Media Sells Vertical Media Publishing Subsidiary for 745 million in Cash." TechCrunch, March 25, 2011.
- ^ Dobby, Christine (May 14, 2014). "Once staggering under $2B in debt, Yellow Media looks to ride brand recognition to new growth". Financial Post. Retrieved February 7, 2018.
- ^ John Heinzl. "How not to invest in 2013." The Globe and Mail, December 21, 2012.
- ^ John Heinzl. "Yellow Media's dividend under the microscope." The Globe and Mail, March 24, 2011
- ^ Todd Johnson. "Risk or Reward: What's Behind Yellow Media's 17% Dividend Yield." Seeking Alpha, June 2, 2011
- ^ John Shmuel. "Yellow Media shares plummet after dividend cut". Financial Post, August 4, 2011.