MONTREAL — Yellow Pages Ltd. missed expectations as its net profit plunged in the third quarter on an 18 per cent drop in revenues.

The Montreal-based digital media and marketing company says its net income decreased nearly 35 per cent to $9 million from $13.8 million a year earlier.

That translated into earnings for the three months ended Sept. 30 of 34 cents per diluted share, down from 49 cents per share in the third quarter of 2019.

Revenues fell to $80.3 million from $98.1 million in the prior year's quarter on a decline in higher market YP digital and media products and reduced spending by customers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yellow Pages was expected to earn 52 cents per share on $82 million of revenues, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

Despite the shortfalls, CEO David Eckert says he's pleased with the results and how "our company continues to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic and build for the future."

The company says the coronavirus has had a modest effect on revenues.

"All of our operations have continued unabated since the COVID-19 crisis began. And the effect of the crisis on our revenues in the third quarter was again only a handful of percentage points."

He added that bookings trends indicate only modest additional impact on revenues over the next couple of quarters.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2020.

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