Monster Rumors Heating Up Again

Someone might be close to acquiring Monster - finally.

The who’s-going-to-buy-Monster rumors have come and gone over the years - LinkedIn being one of the most recent - but the buzz this time ‘round may be more than a ploy to pop the stock.

Sources have been pointing to Fall as the time it’s all supposed to go down. Only time will tell, but here are a few of the players in the mix, ranging from logical to not-a-chance-in-hell:

  • Microsoft - Maybe. I think the company still owns a small position in CareerBuilder, so they are privy to the online employment landscape. As Microsoft struggles to hold onto their enterprise stronghold, adding job postings and Monster’s technology might be a move they’d make.
  • News Corp - After things going so well with MySpace, what could possibly go wrong? With the newspaper biz fading into the sunset, buying a an online job board may seem reasonable for ol’ Murdoch. I think they also have a position in Simply Hired, which could make for an interesting combination.
  • Salesforce - The cloud champion has been adding to its portfolio of companies like mad lately, so throwing in some employment IP could be in the playbook.
  • Oracle - They hate Salesforce and their CEO is nutso.
  • SAP - They bought SuccessFactors earlier this year, which begat adding Jobs2Web a few months later. Monster could be another piece to the puzzle.
  • More Old Media - A longshot, but The New York Times or Washington Post could come out of left field. 
  • Portals - Aol’s stock has been on a tear lately, which may embolden it to make a move for a different kind of content play - jobs. Like old media, I see them less interested in the technology, but who knows? Yahoo!’s lack of success with HotJobs could be a deterrence.
  • Wildcard - Thrown into the discussion have been China’s 51Job and Australia’s Seek. CareerBuilder seems like a longshot, but what the hell. LinkedIn? Fat chance.

Timing is always paramount to acquisitions, and each of the alleged prospective buyers are either grasping for innovation or hoping the replace one dinosaur for other ones. I still contend a sale is a long shot, but if it’s going to happen, it’s likely to be one of the above. 

And hopefully soon. I hate long soap operas.

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Kenexa Deal Proves It’s All About Tech Now

Aaaand, IBM buys Kenexa.

In 2005, when I launched a SEO agency dedicated to helping employers and the companies that serve them, it was all about distribution.

Job boards ruled the day because job seeker traffic was in such high demand and - mostly thanks to SEO - the boards knew how to get it.

As a result, more than 80 percent of my clients were job boards. Because employers could barely spell S-E-O, let alone understand it, employment sites battled it out for Google rankings to garner customers.

Of course you should post with us, look, we’re a Top Ten ranking for ‘left-handed java developer full-time job in Toledo, Ohio, USA.’

Thanks to factors like Indeed, LinkedIn, Craigslist, corporate career centers and a crappy economy, the game is much different today. It’s all about technology.

Job listings are commodities, which means the growth story behind most classified sites is over unless the economy has some miraculous turnaround (it won’t, by the way). Which means intellectual property comes at a premium.

Companies like Jobs2Web, Cardmunch and now Kenexa are technological enhancements to existing tech giants and gazelles, such as IBM. The pool of acquirers for job postings and traffic, in contrast, is close to nil.

As Monster pushes for a sale, you can bet they’re busy pimping their “new tech” and not the millions of job seekers perusing their site monthly. Millions who are migrating to Indeed, by the way.

Today, technology companies make-up the bulk of those I’m assisting and ones asking for assistance in getting their name out there. Not a shock, since that’s where the money is going now.

There will no doubt be a group of mini-Kenexa’s that get gobbled-up over the next few years. Most won’t get IBM dollars, but the forthcoming paydays are bound to put a lot of beer in anyone’s fridge. 

This is a guest post by Joel Cheesman.

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