acquired by CIVC Partners in 1993 and was used as a vehicle for additional acquisitions of smaller directories publishers in the western US. In 1997, TransWestern completed a leveraged recapitalization in which Thomas H. Lee Partners and Providence Equity Partners acquired a 60% interest in the company, with CIVC retaining a minority interest. In 2001, TransWestern acquired Texas-based WorldPages.com, Inc., a leading print and Internet yellow pages publisher listed on the New York Stock Exchange for $215 million. At the time, TransWestern was the second largest independent publisher of directories. In April 2006, Yell agreed to purchase a 59.9% stake in Spanish phone directory firm Telefónica Publicidad e Informacion (TPI) from Telefónica, and launched a bid for the remaining shares which valued TPI at a total of 2.3 billion (€3.3 billion; US$4.1bn). Since then, Yell has bought further capital and in September 2007 reached agreement with the minority shareholders to acquire the remaining 1.28% of what was then named Yell Publicidad (now named Hibu Connect S.A.U., operating under the name Páginas Amarillas España). In July 2006, Yell threatened Yellowikis with legal action, claiming that people will confuse the two organisations. In 2008, Yell Group purchased the Pindar Set business and renamed it Yell Adworks. In May 2009, Yell UK announced an alliance with Google to provide search marketing services to small businesses, followed by Yell Publicidad in January 2010. In June 2009, Yell Group announced the appointment of Bob Wigley as Chairman, following the announcement in May 2009, that existing chairman Bob Scott would step down. In September 2009, Yell's US arm, Yellowbook, acquired Texas and Louisiana assets of ypOne Publishing, the 10th largest independent yellow pages publisher in the US. Yell announced the completion of its refinancing in November 2009, as first announced in June 2009 and updated in September the same year. In February 2010, Yell UK announced the first major redesign in forty years of the traditional Yellow Pages directories into a smaller compact size rather than the traditional A4 format. In May 2010, Yell Group purchased TrustedPlaces, a user-contributed local review site, and its US arm Yellowbook, announced the launch of a new group buying website called Weforia.com in August 2010. 2011–present Several management changes were made in 2011. In July 2011, Yell announced the acquisition of Znode, the privately owned multi-store ecommerce company and strategic alliances on digital services for small businesses with both Microsoft