DexKnows launches Mobile Platform

DexKnows rolled out their mobile platform yesterday, allowing consumers to add DexKnows People and Business search to a variety of mobile platforms, including traditional cel phones, a mobile browser, text message search and of course, an iPhone app (which is the only one I've tried). The iPhone app looks like it has all the basic functions and works fairly well, allowing you to easily search for businesses or people by name and providing a somewhat fun, wheel-based ability to select your category (within Food, Entertainment or Travel/Transportation), combine that with a geo location (of which you can save multiple, which I haven't seen before in an iPhone local app), and get results for that combination. It has the other standard features as well, like saving businesses and returning to previous profiles viewed. All in all, a fairly solid app that covers the basics. It would be great for them to add some interactivity to the next version, allowing users to upload business data, reviews and images, to really utilize the iPhone as a 2-way device.

Dex® Mobile

Business.com Goes Local

Over the weekend, Business.com rolled out a redesign of their site. As part of it, they've integrated listings from their sister site, DexKnows.com. Now, on pretty much every directory page on their site, they've added a "Local Search" widget, which allows you to take their national listings and filter them down to find local vendors.

Merchant Accounts | Business.com

Idearc Results Follow In Line with RHD's - What's Next?

Idearc has reported their results just days after RHD's, and the reports are very similar. They are both shrinking in revenues and profits (but both still with significant Operating Profits), but both have debt that will never be paid off at the current revenue and profit levels. As their businesses move online more and more, their Internet revenues are not making up for print revenue losses. They're both trapped in the space where they don't want to cannibalize their print revenue too much while they still have it, but are lagging on the Internet side for the same reason?

So what happens next? They have both mentioned bankruptcy, which is a realistic discussion because of the size of their debt and the current market for debt restructuring. The real question is will they really go bankrupt or is this a negotiating ploy? Or does it make a difference? In reality, neither of these companies is going to close the doors. The operating profits are still healthy and selling their assets will bring much less money to the debtholders than continued operation will. So, whether they go bankrupt or not, the only option seems to be for the debtholders to agree to forgive some of their debt, to allow the companies to continue to operate, and to be thankful they're getting paid whatever they get. Whether that happens in bankruptcy or not may be moot.

Of course, there's one more option too: Consolidation. YPC seems to be fairly healthy and could make an aggressive move to take an even larger lead, get national coverage, and try to take the dominant position in local, both on and offline. They already have a deal with Idearc to exchange listings. Could that be the first step?

Kelsey Group Blogs » Idearc Results Are Predictably Grim; Bankruptcy an Option

New DexKnows.com Site Goes Live

After a while in Beta, the new DexKnows.com site launched yesterday... It will be very interesting to see how this impacts their positioning in the marketplace and if they see significant traffic increases from the more SEO-friendly structure of the site...

Kelsey Group Blogs » New Dex IYP Goes Live

RHD's new DexKnows site is in Beta

RH Donnelly has launched the beta version of their new yellow pages site, DexKnows. Lots of simple improvements and looks like a good first step in making more progress online.

Kelsey Group Blogs » RHD in Beta with New IYP Platform

Search Insider Recommends Yahoo! Buy RH Donnelly

What should Yahoo! do? How can they improve their business? How can they undo the major mistake they made in not selling to MSFT? Lots of people have their opinions, but according to the Search Insider column (via Greg Sterling), one of the recommendations is for them to buy a yellow pages company, specifically RHD. Why not Idearc? Not sure, any more than I'm sure why Barron's recommended RHD stock vs. Idearc.

But what this shows is that there are potential synergies between Search companies and Yellow Pages companies. Search, like many Internet businesses, has trouble getting a critical mass of small businesses. Yellow Pages companies have those relationships (and long-term established ones), but for the most part, don't have the Internet products to go with them. The question is going to be, does a Search company want to take a huge cut on their margins by acquiring a company that has a huge sales force in exchange for increasing their market share? I guess we'll see...

“Buy the Yellow Pages” Returns « Screenwerk

IYP Reach in the US (according to Google)

Via TechSoapBox:



IYP Reach in the US (according to Google) - Tech Soapbox

Barrons Promotes RH Donnelly as "Risky, But Attractive"

RHD's stock is up 14% at the moment based mostly on an article in Barron's which indicates that, despite the 97% drop in stock price in the last year, RHD's directories are still experiencing strong usage in some sectors and are "far from dead". The albatross, as they say, is the $9.7B of net debt the companies holds. But, as they say, if you're looking for a high-risk, potential high-return stock, RHD may be one to check out. This article made me wonder if they feel the same about Idearc, but they didn't really say here.

Flashing Yellow, With Lots of Green - Barrons.com

Borrell says YPs to lose $5 Billion in Revenues in 5 Years

Not sure I believe this one, but that's the headline. If you look at the comments of the post I linked to on Screenwerk, Borrell indicates the changes in each category over the next 5 years:
Directories -38.9%
Direct Mail - 32.0%
Telemarketing -28.9%
Newspapers -11.0%
Radio -7.0%
Other Print -3.4%
Broadcast TV -2.1%
Online +22.7%
Out of Home +30.2%
Cable +54.8%
Cinema +313.8%

Not to nit-pick one number and use it to impugn the whole survey, but the newspaper number strikes me as being off. They are losing share every day in classified advertising and are talking about raising prices, which should reduce their reader bases (print at least) and hurt their ad revenues more. I think directionally, these numbers are correct, but not sure about their magnitudes.

Borrell: YPs to Lose $5 Billion in 5 Years « Screenwerk

RH Donnelly (RHD) Announces Earnings

(One-year chart shown, same as Idearc below)

RHD earnings came out today and, based on the response of the stock market today, look pretty much as expected. There was a one-time charge of approx $600MM which put it in negative territory on earnings by approx $300MM, but other than that, they were positive and are making progress on paying down the debt (approx 3% paid off in the period). One potential area for concern is that sales were down 8%, which is an indicator of future revenues. If you're interested in more than approx $s, click the link below.

One interesting point is that RHD stock has been moving in lockstep with Idearc for the last year, and while RHD stock was down 13% yesterday, Idearc was down 40%, so that effect has somewhat lessened (most likely because of the differing results seen from yesterday's report to today's).

Yahoo! Finance Charts

Idearc's Earnings Were Not So Good

Idearc's earnings came in today and they weren't very good. Profit down 30%, revenue down 5.7%. And if you look earlier this month, you'll see a press release about them bringing in a former Private Equity person to be their CEO. That can't be good for the employees there. Any by the way, the stock is currently down about 35% on the news (RHD is down 20ish percent as well, and report earnings tomorrow).

IAR: 1.44 -0.76 (-34.55%) - Idearc Inc.