Yahoo sells HotJobs to Monster Worldwide for US$225 million

The all-cash deal announced marks another step in Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz's effort to jettison services that have been struggling or don't fit with the Internet company's efforts to expand its news, entertainment and communications features.

The sale price also reflects how far HotJobs has fallen since Yahoo bought it for US$439 million in cash and stock nearly eight years ago. In an ironic twist, Yahoo had to outbid Monster.com's holding company to buy HotJobs in 2002.

These have been tough times for companies that rely on help-wanted advertising for their income, with the feeble economy and high unemployment rate dampening demand. Monster's profit plunged 85 percent to US$19 million last year.

HotJobs is a smaller player in the market than Monster, which generated US$905 million in revenue last year. JPMorgan analyst Imran Khan estimated HotJobs 2009 revenue at US$900 million.

Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., still will have an opportunity to get some money out of Monster after HotJobs changes hands. The deal calls for the front page of Yahoo's Web site in North America to feature Monster's job listings and other employment content for the next three years. Monster will make annual payments to Yahoo based on the volume of traffic flowing from the links.

Monster, based in New York, is counting on HotJobs to make it a more formidable challenger to CareerBuilder.com and extend its geographic reach by connecting it with about 600 newspapers that belong to HotJobs' network.

In a Wednesday conference call, Monster executives told analysts that it expects to retain about 275 of HotJobs' employees. The executives indicated some layoffs are likely, but didn't indicate how many jobs will be cut.

If the deal is approved by regulators, Monster plans to take over HotJobs between June and October.

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