Yellow Media Inc.

A Long Tradition of Leadership

Yellow Pages Group (YPG) published its first directory in 1908 and operated as a division of Bell Canada until 1971, when it was incorporated as Tele-Direct (Publications) Inc. At the time, the Company published directories that covered nearly all of Ontario and Québec, following the local telephone service footprint. It also published directories for Northwest Tel, Northern Tel and Telebec, which covers the markets of Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario and Québec provinces.

The company historically limited its publishing activities to Canada, but during the 1980s it began expanding into international markets. By the mid-1990s, it had operations or investments in Hong Kong, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, the West Indies, the Cayman Islands and the U.S., directly or through its affiliates. In recent years, however, the company successfully sold off its international publishing ventures to focus on the Canadian market.

In 1999, Tele-Direct (Publications) Inc. changed its name to Bell ActiMedia Inc. and repositioned itself as a multimedia company. That same year, Bell ActiMedia became the business incubator for Sympatico, now Canada's largest consumer Internet portal.

In 2000, Bell ActiMedia was instrumental in negotiating a partnership between Sympatico and American Internet giant Lycos Inc., paving the way for the portal's tremendous success. This led to the creation of a whole series of city sites, including MontrealPlus.ca in 1999, CalgaryPlus.ca, EdmontonPlus.ca and VancouverPlus.ca in 2000, and QuebecPlus.ca and OttawaPlus.ca in 2001.  

Bell Canada Sells its Directory Business

In 2002, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Ontario Teachers' Merchant Bank acquired control of Yellow Pages Group, with Bell Canada retaining 10% ownership.

Concurrent with the acquisition, Bell Canada granted Yellow Pages Group an exclusive, royalty-free license to use the Bell Canada logo and the Bell Canada name in connection with the publication of telephone directories and e-directories in any format for a term of 30 years.

On May 15th, 2003, Yellow Pages Group concluded the purchase of the CanadaPlus.ca city sites network from Bell Canada's Sympatico Portal Division. The city sites network included MontrealPlus.ca™, QuebecPlus.ca™, OttawaPlus.ca™, CalgaryPlus.ca™, EdmontonPlus.ca™ and VancouverPlus.ca™ web sites.

Yellow Pages Group Completes its Initial Public Offering

On August 1st, 2003, Yellow Pages Group, through Yellow Pages Income Fund, completed its initial public offering. The Fund’s ownership interest in Yellow Pages Group at that time was of 30.6%  and it grew to 70.28% following subsequent offerings in which BCE Inc. exchanged its YPG LP units and common shares for units of Yellow Pages Income Fund.

In June 2004, KKR and Teachers' fully monetized their investment in Yellow Pages Group. After giving effect to these transactions, Yellow Pages Income Fund became 100% owner of Yellow Pages Group.

Creation of a National Platform in Directories 

On May 25, 2005, Yellow Pages Group completed the purchase of Advertising Directory Solutions Holdings Inc. (ADS) from an affiliate of Bain Capital for approximately CDN $2.55 billion creating a national platform for its directory business. The transaction makes Yellow Pages Group the incumbent directory publisher in Alberta and British Columbia and certain parts of Quebec where Yellow Pages Group was not present.

Creation of a National Platform in Vertical Media

On February 14, 2006 Yellow Pages Group closed the acquisition of Trader Media Corporation (TMC), Ontario’s largest publisher of classified advertising and web sites thus commencing its expansion into related media.

On June 8, 2006 Yellow Pages Group completed the purchase of Classified Media (Canada) Holdings Inc. (Trader Canada). Following this acquisition, Yellow Pages Group created a second national platform, this time in vertical media by combining its affiliate company Trader Media Corporation (TMC)’s presence in Ontario with that of Trader Canada in the rest of Canada. The combination of Trader Canada and TMC gives Yellow Pages Group a national presence in vertical media with approximately 200 publications and 20 web sites. The combined business of Trader Canada and TMC was renamed Trader Corporation. 

Manitoba and Atlantic Canada added to the National Platform of Directories 

On October 2, 2006 Yellow Pages Group completed the purchase of MTS Media from MTS Allstream Inc. solidifying its current national platform for its directory business. The transaction makes Yellow Pages Group the incumbent directory publisher in Manitoba and the number one directory publisher in Canada's top 10 markets.

Yellow Pages Group acquired Aliant Directory Services from Bell Aliant and became its sole owner on April 30, 2007 after being the managing partner for the last 10 years. This acquisition allowed to further solidify the company's leadership as Canada’s largest telephone directory publisher. Yellow Pages Group will continue publishing the 35 different residential and Yellow Pages™ directories previously issued across New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador by Aliant Directory Services.

Consolidation of National Platform in Directories and presence in the US

On August 27, 2008 Yellow Pages Group announced its acquisition of Get-It Pages, a directory publisher serving four regional communities in the Province of Saskatchewan taking the final step in the consolidation of its national directories platform.

Yellow Pages Group completed the purchase of the assets of Volt Information Sciences, Inc. (VOLT)’s directory systems and services as well as its directory publishing operations which includes independent directories in selected Mid-Atlantic and Southeast American markets on September 8, 2008.

Canpages Acquisition

In May 2010 YPG acquired Canpages  Inc. and sold its Mid-Atlantic and Southeast American directory business. Canpages publishes local telephone directories across Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. In addition to directories, Canpages also offers advanced mobile search technologies and multiple search possibilities with free text messages to mobile phones, mobile maps, direct SMS search and iPhone mobile browsing experiences.  Canpages is the owner of brands such as Canpages™, GoEdmonton™, GoCalgary™, GoToronto™, GoVictoria™ and GoVancouver™.

Conversion to a Corporate Structure

On November 1, 2010, Yellow Pages Income Fund converted from an income trust structure into a corporate structure (Yellow Media Inc.).  Following the conversion, Yellow Media Inc., parent company of YPG, Trader and Canpages, began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the YLO ticker symbol.

Divestiture of Trader Corporation

On July 28, 2011 Yellow Media Inc. completed the divestiture of Trader Corporation’s automotive segment to Funds advised by APAX Partners. The transaction enabled the Corporation to strengthen its capital structure and focus all of its efforts on YPG’s digital transformation and organic execution in its core business.

Following the sale of Trader, Yellow Media created a new division entirely focused on its real estate portfolio. The new division called Wall2Wall Media (W2W) manages publications and services related to the real estate, employment and hospital news print and online verticals. W2W produces over 75 print publications and four websites reaching over 23 million Canadians each year and covering the new homes, new condos, rentals, resale, as well as home and décor markets.

For more details about Yellow Media Inc. visit Investor Relations.