AT&T Makes The Call, Plans To Sell Yellow Pages

By Benjamin Reeves | March 08 2012 4:28 PM

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is seeking to sell much of its stake in Yellow Pages in an approximately $1.5 billion deal with private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

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AT&T reported third-quarter net income that narrowly exceeded estimates.

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Under the terms being considered, AT&T would maintain a minority stake in Yellow Pages, whose profitability has been slashed by Internet-linked mobile devices and online services. A deal could be reached this month with the New York-based private equity firm.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in January the Yellow Pages division was a part of the company he was going to obviously take a very hard look at, reported Reuters. In the fourth quarter of last year the Dallas-based company took a writedown of $2.9 billion to reflect the declining value of its directories business.

AT&T's advertising solutions division, which includes the Yellow Pages, contributes just 3 percent of the company's $127 billion in revenue.

The Yellow Pages division of AT&T has struggled to compete with online services in recent years as fewer people use printed phone directories.

Cerberus Capital Management was unavailable for comment, and AT&T declined to comment.

Shares of AT&T fell one cent to $31.00 in after-hours trading.