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A CEO named Joe Walsh ran a Yellow Pages business that generated $600 million in revenue and $280 million in EBITDA, even as it declined 12% annually. Like AOL dial-up, it was outdated but people still used it for local advertising.
A CEO named Joe Walsh ran a Yellow Pages business that generated $600 million in revenue and $280 million in EBITDA, even as it declined 12% annually. Like AOL dial-up, it was outdated but people still used it for local advertising.
Did I hear a story about you doing a bankruptcy thing? Was it with Yellow Pages?
That's probably not my second best, but my third or fourth. Really great CEO, a guy named Joe Walsh.
And you're talking about Yellow Pages, the book.
The things dropped on your porch. Amazing business. $600 million in revenue and $280 million in EBITDA, but it was declining 12% a year.
It's just advertising.
Yeah, the local plumber. It's like AOL dial-up. Why would anyone have AOL dial-up? Well, people still do.
My mom does.
I went on the board. I think I invested about $4 million and they were trying to transition to become a CRM company because the core asset of the company was relationships with tons of small and medium-sized businesses. And they started selling them calendaring and clienteling software. You could basically buy these companies. You would close the headquarters, keep the 30% of the best salespeople, and then let go of everyone else. And as long as you cut costs faster than 12% a year through consolidation, you were cash flow accretive. And every year the stock price went up. I think I had 4 or 5x there. I didn't 10x.
