Dex, SuperMedia File for Bankruptcy to Complete Merger

By Andrea Tan & Phil Milford - Mar 18, 2013 7:34 AM ET

Directory publishers Dex One Corp. (DEXO), formerly known as R.H. Donnelley Corp., andSuperMedia Inc. (SPMD), formerly Idearc Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors to facilitate a planned merger.

Dex One and SuperMedia’s shareholders and lenders agreed to accept a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan, both companies said in separate petitions filed late yesterday and early today in U.S. Bankruptcy court in Delaware. The companies publish yellow pages and online directories and provide advertising services online and through direct mail.

Dex One, based in Cary, North Carolina, listed assets of $2.84 billion and liabilities of $2.79 billion. SuperMedia, which lists billionaire John Paulson’s Paulson & Co. as one of the shareholders, had assets of $1.4 billion and liabilities of $1.9 billion, according to its bankruptcy filing.

The merger will result in as much as $175 million in so- called yearly run rate savings by 2015, Dex One, known as R.H. Donnelley before emerging from a bankruptcy reorganization in 2010, said in its filing.

Among Dex One’s largest unsecured creditors listed in court papers were holders of $219.7 million in senior subordinated notes with Bank of New York Mellon as trustee; and Google Inc., owed $11 million in trade debt.

Unsecured creditors cited by SuperMedia included Google, owed $3.74 million in trade debt; and Product Development Corp., owed $2.79 million.

2006 Spinoff

SuperMedia, based in Dallas, was formerly known as Idearc Inc., a unit of Verizon Communications Inc., before it was spun off in 2006.

SuperMedia’s business has been “impacted by a highly competitive industry in the U.S.,” including newspapers, radio, television, the Internet, billboards, direct mail, telemarketing and other yellow pages directory publishers, said Samuel D. Jones, chief financial officer for SuperMedia, in explaining the bankruptcy and merger plans in court papers.

The cases are In re Dex One Corp, 13-10533, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware. and In re SuperMedia Inc, 13-10545, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware.

To contact the reporters on this story: Andrea Tan in Singapore at atan17@bloomberg.net; Phil Milford in Wilmington, Delaware at pmilford@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net; Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net