RH Donnelly to buy business.com for $345mn

07/27/07 - newratings.com

NEW YORK, July 27 (newratings.com) – Yellow pages publisher RH Donnelly Corp (RHD) Thursday announced that it had agreed to buy online business search engine business.com for $345 million in cash.

The deal, which is in-line with the company’s strategy to take its directory business online, is expected to be completed in the third quarter of the current year. RH Donnelly’s share price declined, however, by 9% after the company reported lower-than-expected second-quarter results. The company reported its net income for the three months at $24.9 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, as compared to losses of $79.8 million in the year-ago quarter. The year-ago results included onetime charges related to the acquisition of Dex Media and the purchase of some directory business from AT&T. RH Donnelly’s quarterly revenues climbed 54% to $666.6 million in the latest quarter, from $423.3 million in the same period a year earlier.