Monster Rumors Heating Up

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.

Click here for the rest of the story.

Comment by Andrew Hanneman on September 12, 2012 at 3:42pm: I think Facebook is the most likely and it is not even on your list. My vote would be for Facebook..

Comment by Martin O'Shea on September 13, 2012 at 5:41am: Have to agree with Andrew that is most likely be Facebook, but my vote is with new corp, newspaper job ads are very much a thing of the passed!

Comment by Jason Alba on September 13, 2012 at 9:59am: I hope that when someone buys Monster that opens things up a bit in the space. Monster has been in a wait-and-see position for so long while they should have been innovating and making strategic acquisitions to strengthen their position. Whoever makes the move will be declaring they are in the space and hopefully THEY will invest in innovation and strategic acquisitions.

Here's a weird one to put on the list: AOL. They recently have invested a few things in the job/career space, even though they market it very poorly (from the corporate and UI level).

Comment by Tiffany Branch on September 13, 2012 at 10:54am: Regardless of who buys Monster, what more can the board do? At the end of the day, I still only use it for posting and searching the database, and that isn't very often. Is it ever a time where something can become "too robust?"

Comment by Jason Alba on September 13, 2012 at 11:09am: Tiffany, good question. I agree... continuing to work on the path they are working on does seem like they are going "too robust." They haven't kept up with what the market needs/wants are (and allowed Indeed to come and take such a huge part of their business... that shouldn't have happened, if they had innovative labs that were attacking the right problems).

I think the real question is, what problems need to be solved... there are plenty of them from the recruiter/company side, and plenty of them from the job seeker side (job boards typically don't cater to job seeker needs).

Comment by Joel Cheesman on September 13, 2012 at 11:18am: Jason, if you click over to see the rest of the post, you'll see Aol. :-)

Comment by Jason Alba on September 13, 2012 at 11:25am: Ah yes, you are right... sorry about that. The "see more" link was hidden by the other "You might like" links... they were all too close together.

Again, awesome to have you back... reading that post was like a blast from the past :)

Comment by Joel Cheesman on September 13, 2012 at 11:27am: Ha! Thanks for the kind words. It's fun to write again ... glad there are still a few who remember the Old Days. ;-)

Comment by Peter Ceccarelli on September 14, 2012 at 4:34pm: I completely agree with Tiffany. What more can a job board really do? At the end of the day it's not about bells and whistles. It's about personally networking and staying in your industry long enough to build up a lot of contacts that have moved up through the ranks and are even bigger networks and resources to you personally. Monster has done a lot of innovating over the years. They still dominate and will continue to dominate. Regardless of who purchases them, I don't think much will change.