{"id":117457,"date":"2012-08-24T19:22:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-25T00:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/dexone-and-supermedia-to-merge\/"},"modified":"2024-12-31T05:52:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T10:52:04","slug":"dexone-and-supermedia-to-merge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-ca\/insights\/blog\/paid-media\/dexone-and-supermedia-to-merge\/","title":{"rendered":"DexOne and SuperMedia to Merge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming seemingly on the heels of AT&T\u2019s directory business acquisition by YP Holdings<\/a>, DexOne<\/a> and SuperMedia<\/a> today announced a company merger expected to be complete by the end of 2012.\u00a0 The newly merged company will become known as DexMedia.<\/p>\n

It is expected that the media properties that each company owns (i.e. supermedia.com; dexknows.com; switchboard, etc) will remain intact for the time being as details are worked out and branding implications are considered.\u00a0 Both companies have made large strides with respect to branding and as such brand equity will be integral to this merger process.<\/p>\n

So, what does it all mean?<\/h2>\n

At the end of the day, it means that upon approval of the merger, there will remain in the US, 3 large media solution providers<\/a> \u2013 YP (formerly AT&T\u2019s directory business); the newly formed DexMedia and YellowBook<\/a> (owned by Hibu<\/a> in the UK).<\/p>\n

Is this a good thing?<\/h2>\n

In a word \u2013 Yes.\u00a0 This type of merger is long in the making as directory publishers and publications in the US had proliferated throughout the 1990\u2019s and into the early 2000s, due to the breaking up of Ma Bell in 1984 by an antitrust court.\u00a0 The problem always was that most of them were never competitive in the marketplace.\u00a0 As such, since 2004\/2005, many companies have either been merging or going out of business.<\/p>\n

For years, YP (AT&T), DexOne, SuperMedia and YellowBook have been the dominant players.\u00a0 That\u2019s four companies out of over 200+ directory publishers just in the US.\u00a0 So, again, this merger is a good thing.<\/p>\n

Why is it a good thing?<\/h2>\n

The merged company DexMedia will continue to normalize the directory publishing in the marketplace. Redundancy will be eliminated and best practices will be established in order to continue to maximize advertisers return on investment (ROI).\u00a0 This merger will continue the transformation of the traditional directory marketplace.\u00a0 No longer are these companies like DexMedia and YP Holdings focused solely on Print Yellow Pages.\u00a0 They have worked to transform their offering to one that helps local advertisers have real-time solutions in this highly fragmented media landscape.\u00a0 DexMedia\u2019s mission<\/a> is to become \u201c*the* trusted marketing consultant to local businesses<\/a>\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\n

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