Private Equities Get “Amarillas” Fever

I recently noticed a press release on the merger of two relatively obscure publishers of Spanish-language Yellow Pages directories. The acquiring party is Hispanic Yellow Pages of America, backed by the private equity fund called Hispania Capital Partners LLC. The fund??s purpose is to build a Spanish-language directories business, and one of its chief backers is Verizon Communications. Other similar financial players have emerged to pursue this niche.

Do we think they will be successful? Yes, but only to a point. Too many of those supporting this business model read too much into the demographic data. Yes, a larger share of Americans will be of Hispanic origin in the coming years. This doesn??t automatically translate into a parallel Yellow Pages universe conducted in Spanish.