Yellow Media Inc.’s (TSX:YLO) decision earlier this week to close its Canpages division and lay off an estimated 250 staff is a sad end to what was a B.C. success story.
Back in 2006, Canpages was fresh from two major acquisitions and was taking a run at then Yellow Pages Group’s market share in the rapidly evolving business directory sector.
The company had doubled in size from a 6,000-square-foot headquarters in Burnaby to new 12,000-square-foot digs in Coquitlam. More recently, Canpages moved back to Burnaby and also opened an office in Victoria.
It had snagged luminaries such as former Newfoundland premier Brian Tobin to sit on the board of directors, and it had a deep-pocketed owner-investor in Texas-based HM Capital Partners.
Things were so good that HM was budgeting $100 million for then-CEO Olivier Vincent to buy directory businesses, launch new directories and otherwise expand operations.
Internet media metrics giant ComScore Inc. (Nasdaq:SCOR) ranked Canpages as the fastest growing Canadian Internet site in 2008. It increased its unique visitor count to 3.9 million per month in mid-2009 compared with 150,000 per month in 2006.
Canpages also quadrupled its annual revenue between 2006 and 2009 to about $100 million in the year that ended July 31, 2009.
Quebec-based Yellow Media eventually bought its fast-growing competitor for $225 million in 2010, but the purchase failed to prop up the flailing Yellow Media.
Yellow Media’s shares have been hovering around $0.18. That’s about 97% lower than they were a year ago.
After the purchase, Vincent moved on to grow American phone directory publisher ZipLocal, which in 2010 had about US$115 million in annual revenue.
Vincent told Business in Vancouver February 2 that he left ZipLocal in mid-2011 and is now CEO of consulting company Hipparcos Technologies.
Glen Korstrom
@GlenKorstrom