May 16, 2012 ONLINE RECRUITMENT M&A

There has been speculation lately about Monster Worldwide being for sale, including a story in Reuters last Friday about LinkedIn’s potential interest in the Internet jobs search company. However, after conducting an initial assessment, LinkedIn has stated that it has no plans to acquire Monster. Besides looking at Monster’s strategic options, Silver Lake Partners has been mentioned as a potential private equity buyer.

Monster, which acquired rival HotJobs.com in 2010, is facing competition from a number of aggregators such as Indeed.com and SimplyHired.com. CareerBuilder, another one of Monster’s competitors, made two acquisitions in April. The online career site acquired CEVIU and Top Language Jobs last month to further solidify its international presence.

In a March blog post, Berkery Noyes considered M&A activity in human resources technology, with an emphasis on how cloud computing and SaaS are impacting the landscape. Oracle’s acquisition of Taleo for $1.9 billion, a talent management deal announced in February, is the most prominent example.

A more recent transaction, CallidusCloud’s acquisition of 6FigureJobs, also confirms this trend. 6FigureJobs focuses on resources and content for recruiters and senior level job seekers in an income range over $100k. The recruiting process now often includes video resumes, as well as social and mobile technologies during the interview phase, making M&A an attractive option for enterprises seeking to improve their HR offerings.