R.H. Donnelley to Buy Sprint Phone Book Firm

R.H. Donnelley Corp., a yellow page marketer widely acknowledged to have published the first U.S. telephone directory, returned to its roots by agreeing to purchase Sprint Corp.’s phone book business for $2.23 billion in cash.

The transaction would create the largest publicly traded phone book publisher, with more than 260 white and yellow page directories distributed to 18 million customers in 18 states.

It also would provide some additional financial breathing room for Sprint, which placed its directory operation on the auction block four months ago to help pare down more than $20 billion in debt.