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Business.com's CEO, Jake Winebaum, To Be Appointed President of R.H. Donnelley's Interactive Operations
CARY, N.C., July 26, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- R.H. Donnelley Corporation
(NYSE: RHD), one of the nation's leading Yellow Pages and online local
commercial search companies, today announced that it has signed a definitive
agreement to acquire Business.com, a leading business search engine and
directory and pay-per-click advertising network.
Through this transaction, R.H. Donnelley will add to its existing
interactive portfolio a rapidly growing and profitable business-to-business
company, with online properties that include Business.com, Work.com and the
Business.com Advertising Network. These online brands attract an audience of
highly qualified and motivated business decision makers. Business.com
optimizes the revenues from these properties through the use of its
Performance Based Advertising (PBA) platform, which is considered to be one of
the most advanced systems in the marketplace.
In addition, R.H. Donnelley's Triple Play(TM) business-to-consumer
integrated marketing solutions will also benefit from a significant infusion
of leading-edge search and directory technology and interactive thought
leadership from Business.com, particularly in the areas of performance based
advertising technologies and corresponding ad network capabilities.
Business.com employs approximately 100 highly-skilled technologists,
strategists and businesspeople and serves more than 6,000 business-to-business
advertisers and their agencies. The company is profitable and is expected to
generate revenues of greater than $50 million in 2007. It is widely
recognized as a leader in the online business-to-business commercial search
space and has been named to the "Inc. 500" and BtoB magazine's "Media Power
50".
"With this transaction R.H. Donnelley takes another significant step
forward in the online local commercial search marketplace," said David C.
Swanson, chairman and CEO of R.H. Donnelley Corporation. "Upon closing, we
will immediately gain a profitable business-to-business vertical that is
widely recognized as one of the leaders in the market. We also gain
technology and talent that will accelerate our capabilities with DexKnows.com
and other aspects of our digital strategy."
Business.com is led by Founder and CEO Jake Winebaum, a highly-regarded,
successful leader of Internet and media companies. Upon closing of the
transaction, Winebaum will be appointed as President of R.H. Donnelley's
interactive unit (RHDi), which will now include DexKnows.com(TM), LocalLaunch!
search engine marketing company, Business.com, Work.com and the Business.com
Advertising Network. Winebaum will lead RHDi from Santa Monica, Calif., and
will report directly to Swanson.
Prior to starting Business.com, Winebaum led the Internet activities of
The Walt Disney Company, serving as the Chairman of Buena Vista Internet
Group, which managed high-profile brands such as Disney.com and ESPN.com. His
leadership and contributions to the Internet industry have been acknowledge by
Time magazine, which included him as one of the Top 50 Cyber Elite and Wired
magazine, who placed him on the Wired 25.
"We are very excited about joining the R.H. Donnelley organization,"
Winebaum said. "Business.com and the platform we built over the past seven
years are a perfect complement to R.H. Donnelley's interactive strategy. The
solutions that we have created for business decision makers and advertisers
are directly applicable to what is required to service the local search and
directory needs of consumers and local merchants. It is exciting to become
part of an organization with such substantial reach, capabilities and
resources. Business.com is already a profitable and growing enterprise, but
together we will accelerate this growth and ensure our combined leadership
position in the business and local markets."
Swanson added, "We are very pleased to welcome Jake and the Business.com
team to R.H. Donnelley. Jake's track record of success and significant
experience in building and running successful interactive organizations make
him the perfect choice to lead RHDi's fast-growing interactive business."
Under the terms of the agreement, R.H. Donnelley will acquire Business.com
for $345 million in cash and deferred purchase consideration. The deal is
expected to close in the third quarter of 2007 and is subject to customary
terms and closing conditions, including compliance with the Hart-Scott-Rodino
Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.
Conference Call Information
R.H. Donnelley Corporation will discuss this transaction and 2nd quarter
earnings on a conference call scheduled for Thursday, July 26, 2007, at 10:00
a.m. ET. Individuals within the United States can access the call by dialing
888-387-9606 -- others should dial 517-645-6055. The pass code for the call
is "RHD." In order to ensure a prompt start time, please dial into the call
by 9:50 a.m. (ET). A replay of the teleconference can be accessed from within
the United States by dialing 800-793-2380 and internationally by dialing
203-369-3339. There is no pass code for the replay, which will be available
through August 9, 2007. In addition, a live Web cast will be available on
RHD's Web site at www.rhd.com, and an archived version will be available for
up to one year.
About R.H. Donnelley
R.H. Donnelley connects businesses and consumers through its broad
portfolio of print and interactive marketing solutions. Small- and
medium-sized businesses look to R.H. Donnelley's experienced team of marketing
consultants to help them grow their companies and drive sales leads.
Consumers depend on the company's reliable, trusted, local business content to
deliver the most relevant search results when they are seeking local goods and
services. R.H. Donnelley's Triple Play integrated marketing solution provides
the most comprehensive print Yellow Pages, Internet Yellow Pages and search
engine marketing/search engine optimization (SEM/SEO) tools for local
businesses to attract ready-to-buy customers. For more information, visit
www.rhd.com.
About Business.com
Business.com (www.business.com) is the leading business search engine and
directory and pay-per-click advertising network, serving more than 30 million
business users and thousands of advertisers every month. Business.com helps
business decision makers quickly find what they need to manage and grow their
businesses, and enables advertisers to reach these users wherever they are
across the business Internet through premier partners, including The Wall
Street Journal Online, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Hoovers, Financial Times and
Internet.com. The company recently launched Work.com (www.work.com), a b-to-b
community publishing platform featuring more than 1,800 business how-to guides
contributed by business experts. Business.com was named to the 2006 Inc. 500
and BtoB magazine's Media Power 50. Business.com was founded in 1999 by
eCompanies and is headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif. Its investors
partners include Benchmark Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Evercore
Partners, Reed Business Information and McGraw-Hill.
Safe Harbor Provision
Certain statements contained in the release regarding RHD's, RHDi's or
Business.com's future operating results or performance or business plans or
prospects and any other statements not constituting historical fact are
"forward-looking statements" subject to the safe harbor created by the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Where possible, the words
"believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "should," "will," "planned,"
"estimated," "potential," "goal," "outlook" and similar expressions, as they
relate to RHD or its management, have been used to identify such
forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements reflect only our
current beliefs and assumptions with respect to future business plans,
prospects, decisions and results, and are based on information currently
available to us. Accordingly, the statements are subject to significant
risks, uncertainties and contingencies, which could cause actual operating
results, performance or business plans or prospects to differ materially from
those expressed in, or implied by, these statements.
The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ
from those set forth in the forward-looking statements: (1) the risk that the
conditions to closing will not be satisfied; (2) the risk that the transaction
will be delayed or fail to close; and (3) the possibility that the expected
strategic advantages of the transaction will not be realized or may take
longer to realize than expected. Additional factors that could cause RHD's
results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking
statements are described in detail in RHD's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 in Item 1A "Risk Factors" as well as RHD's
other periodic filings with the SEC that are available on the SEC's website at
www.sec.gov.
SOURCE R.H. Donnelley Corporation
Investors, Tom McCallum, 1-800-497-6329, or Media, Tyler D. Gronbach,
+1-919-297-1541, both of R.H. Donnelley Corporation
http://www.rhd.com