“My fingers can no longer do the walking,” she sobbed. After a moment or two she summoned all the courage she had and asked the sergeant, “Does that mean the yellow pages are dead?””
Sarge just shurged. It they are, the cause of death is plunging advertising revenue.
Here’s what we know. Police are pursuing the suspects; Yahoo, Google and your cell phone. Investors had to call for help last week after shares of yellow pages publisher R.H. Donnelly plunged more than 60% to their lowest in 17 years.
The final nail in the coffin came this week, as the economy weakened further and paper costs continued to rise.
So what's the play as the yellow pages leave investors seeing red?
I wouldn’t short RHD right now, counsels Karen Finerman. They have a great deal of debt on the books and typically people who use the yellow pages are people who have just moved to a new neighborhood. With home sales down that’s not good for RHD, either.
Look at Microsoft (MSFT),Google (GOOG) and ValueClick (VCLK) she counsels as longer term plays.
The other traders agree.
