Montreal-based Yellow Pages Ltd. recently acquired Juice Mobile, a privately-held, Toronto-based marketing service provider and automated mobile advertising platform developer, for $35 million.
The acquisition was announced on March 15 and closed on March 17, and will allow Yellow Pages to add programmatic to its already-considerable stable of digital marketing services, which include online advertising division Mediative, launched in 2010.
In a March 15 statement, Yellow Pages president and CEO Julien Billot called the acquisition “highly complementary to our business,” one that would extend not only the mobile advertising capabilities of his own company, but those of the small- and medium-sized businesses that represent many of Yellow Pages’ clients.
Though founded only in 2010, Juice Mobile’s direct programmatic platform, Nectar, and real-time bidding platform, Swarm, are already used by an extensive network of brands and publishers, including more than 300 Fortune 500 companies – a list that should merge well with Yellow Pages’ existing networks of local consumers, businesses and advertising agencies, the company said in its statement.
The acquisition will also provide Yellow Pages with a much-needed source of profit, as the company prepares to repay $100 million in debt this year, part of its efforts to be debt-free by 2018. The Juice acquisition was funded using Yellow Pages’ existing assets and will not affect its ability to repay its debt on time, the company said in its statement.
Juice’s revenues exceeded $25 million last year, and it was named Canada’s 15th fastest growing company in a 2015 list by international consultation firm Deloitte. In addition to its Toronto headquarters, Juice owns additional offices in Montreal, Waterloo, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and also operates a mobile media publishing network that garners 11 billion impressions per year.
Yellow Pages, of course, is probably still best known for its iconic business directories, which it has been publishing in one form or another since 1908. However, in the Internet age the company has reinvented itself as a digital media and marketing solutions firm that focuses on supporting neighbourhood businesses through a network of websites, including YP.ca, RedFlagDeals, Canada411, and dine.TO.