RH Donnelley Buys Business.com Following Fierce Bidding Battle

RH Donnelley (RHD) bought the Business.com domain for about $350 million, edging out bidders such as Dow Jones (DJ), New York Times (NYT) and News Corp. (NWS), according to PaidContent.

The deal closes out what appears to be a fierce bidding war. PaidContent reports News Corp. dropped out once the price broke $300 million. Dow Jones couldn’t get its act together as it weighs the News Corp. bid. And the New York Times held tough until the end.

Despite my initial skepticism over the Business.com auction the RH Donnelley purchase makes some business sense. If a content company acquired Business.com it would have tried to turn it into a portal and hamper the site’s existing model. Business.com as constructed is basically a directory for advertisers. 

Meanwhile, RH Donnelley publishes yellow pages and has been fairly aggressive with its online moves of late. In other words, Business.com is a nice fit for RH Donnelley since it is likely to be a handy directory and lead generator.

RHD 1-yr chart: