Yell: Paging private equity

The conventional wisdom about telephone directories businesses is that they generate ample cashflow and steady growth. Yell, the UK-listed yellow pages publisher, showed an unconventional variability on Tuesday. Its profit warning caused a panic 20% drop in the share price. That looks excessive, if nothing worse happens. The problem is in the US market, which accounts for about half of the group’s revenues. Analysts had been expecting near double-digit percentage growth, but the company is no...