Canada’s Yellow Media announced today that it has sold its Trader Corp. vertical media business to the private equity firm Apax Partners for C$745 million. The deal lets YPG focus on transforming its core directories business and the cash helps improve the company’s balance sheet. YPG is not completely getting out of the vertical media business, at least for now. It will retain its real estate and employment operations and the online classified site LesPac.com.

Trader Corp. is particularly strong in the automotive category.

In 2010, YPG generated C$315 million from its vertical media business, compared with C$1,365 million from its directories business. The EBITDA margin for vertical media last year was C$91 million, suggesting sale multiple of more than 8 times trailing EBITDA.

Here is how BIA/Kelsey described the deal when it was announced in December 2005:

With its announcement this week that it will acquire Trader Media Corp., Canada’s Yellow Pages Group (YPG) has joined a small but growing community of Yellow Pages publishers that see classifieds not only as a new revenue source but also as a key element of their long-term content strategies.

Apparently long term amounted to roughly five years. BIA/Kelsey reported at the time that the sale price was C$435 million, which represented a multiple of 10.1 times EBITDA.

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YPG in Canada took yet another step outside its core Yellow Pages business this week with the acquisition of CanadianDriver.com, which will complement its Trader Corp. auto classifieds unit. CanadianDriver.com, which is dubbed “Canada’s online auto magazine,” is an 11-year-old consumer focused site that features new car reviews, test drives and automotive news as well as other automotive topics.

In our view, YPG’s acquisition will help its Trader unit acquire more traffic cost effectively. The magazine’s tightly focused articles should also boost its SEO ranking. In addition, the nature of the articles can assist the Trader unit in expanding its relevance to national advertisers and their agencies.

The post YPG’s Trader Acquires CanadianDriver.com appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

YPG in Canada took yet another step outside its core Yellow Pages business this week with the acquisition of CanadianDriver.com, which will complement its Trader Corp. auto classifieds unit. CanadianDriver.com, which is dubbed “Canada’s online auto magazine,” is an 11-year-old consumer focused site that features new car reviews, test drives and automotive news as well as other automotive topics.

In our view, YPG’s acquisition will help its Trader unit acquire more traffic cost effectively. The magazine’s tightly focused articles should also boost its SEO ranking. In addition, the nature of the articles can assist the Trader unit in expanding its relevance to national advertisers and their agencies.

The post YPG's Trader Acquires CanadianDriver.com appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.