YP, the local search and advertising company owned by Cerberus Capital Management and AT&T, said on Monday that it had acquired Sense Networks, a mobile ad company.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the deal will bring Sense Networks and its entire staff on board with YP, which is based in Atlanta.
With more than $1 billion in revenue last year, YP is one of the largest mobile advertising companies in the United States. Acquiring Sense Networks, which mines location and behavioral data, will allow YP to provide more accurately targeted search and display ads.
YP was formed in 2012, when private equity Cerberus bought a majority interest in the yellow pages business, made up of AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive, from AT&T for $950 million.
At the time, AT&T was looking to focus on its higher margin wireless and Internet operations, and the yellow pages business represented a minuscule portion of the company’s revenue.
While the traditional yellow pages phone book business still makes money, the local search business is the faster growing part of YP. Online, YP competes with Google and sites like Yelp and Citysearch for the attention of local advertisers and users.
This is YP’s first acquisition as a stand-alone company. But YP’s chief executive, David Krantz, said more deals were planned.
“We expect to continue to make technology acquisitions and plan to aggressively maintain and build on our mobile advertising leadership,†he said in a statement.
Union Square Advisors and Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton advised YP.
