The Kelsey Group blog reports on the various rumors surrounding Yell Group, the international directory publisher based in the UK. They mention an article in The Independent that states “the word is that the internet giant Google is favourite to buy the company”.
Kelsey adds “Such a deal has some logic to it. After all, Google clearly wants access to a massive local channel (Yell’s UK and USA businesses combined have almost 8,000 sales reps). It is unclear, however, what it would do with the print business, which represents about 90 percent of revenues, though online has been growing rapidly in the UK, and is beginning to take hold in the US. It is hard to see the cultures of Google and Yell meshing easily.”
What it means: although a Yell Group acquisition would give Google sales force and local search critical mass in the US, UK, and Spain, I seriously doubt Google would buy a directory publisher at this moment in time. Other than the YouTube purchase (which in my mind was the first large media acquisition by Google), they have focused on technology & brain power acquisitions. But I might be wrong!
Seb Provencher's Blog 
Google does not understand that advertising is sold! Radio, TV, all the rags and all the coupons we get in our mail every week are SOLD BY SOMEONE!
Google does not want a sales force. They think the world will beat a path to their door. Yeah, those days are over.
After having to go through the brain damage of setting up an account with AdWords and managing it! Forget it. Most business people will wait until someone comes knocking at their door and offers to do this for them.
In my opinion, buying YELL makes a hell of a lot of sense as long as they leave the selling to the sales people!
Google does not understand that advertising is sold! Radio, TV, all the rags and all the coupons we get in our mail every week are SOLD BY SOMEONE!
Google does not want a sales force. They think the world will beat a path to their door. Yeah, those days are over.
After having to go through the brain damage of setting up an account with AdWords and managing it! Forget it. Most business people will wait until someone comes knocking at their door and offers to do this for them.
In my opinion, buying YELL makes a hell of a lot of sense as long as they leave the selling to the sales people!