Seat to Pass on TPI

Word from Italy is that Seat Pagine Gialle, Italy’s leading directory organization, is not interested in buying Telefonica’s 60 percent stake in Telefnica Publicidad e Informacin, Spain’s top YP publisher. TPI is on the market to raise cash for Telefnica to pursue other acquisitions in the mobile space.

Seat was one of the companies rumored to be interested, but the publisher issued a statement that it was not pursuing the deal. Seat was once a very acquisitive organization but has focused much more on its home market in recent years. Seat does own Thomson Directories in the U.K. and the European DA operator Telegate.

Others said to be pursuing the deal include Britain’s Yell Group, France’s PagesJaunes and a host of private equity groups.