US telco AT&T is reportedly in talks to sell a majority stake in its Yellow Pages phone directories business to Cerberus Capital Management.
AT&T and Cerberus declined to comment on the report.
Citing two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg…
US telco AT&T is reportedly in talks to sell a majority stake in its Yellow Pages phone directories business to Cerberus Capital Management.
AT&T and Cerberus declined to comment on the report.
Citing two people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported that AT&T would retain a minority stake in the company, which the deal valued at around US$1.5bn.
One source was quoted saying that AT&T has held talks with several buyout firms but an agreement still has not been made.
AT&T is reportedly being advised by Bank of America and Citigroup on the transaction.
Yellow Pages is part of the ‘Advertising Solutions’ unit of AT&T, which saw its operating revenues in 2011 fall by 16% to US$3.29bn. As a segment, it made a loss of US$2.27bn.
In a conference call with analysts on 26 January, AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson said that the company would consider opportunities to divest “low-performing and non-strategic” assets and would take “a very hard look” at its phone directories business.
Stephenson added: “It’s one of these areas where we’re going to have to decide: do we keep it or do we restructure it going forward?”
