Comments on: microhoo! is bad news for hotjobs

By: Darrell

Darrell — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:07:26 +0000

Careerbuilder paid a lot for the right to be represented on AOL and MSN. If M/S owns a portion of CB, then it’s not worth talking about. Monster “lost” the bidding war about five years ago over reaching AOL and MSN eyeballs. M/S would love to have it’s own property.

By: moneymaker

moneymaker — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:33:16 +0000

3rd in revenue for YHJ is not necessarily a bad thing. CB launched a $250 million ad campaign – someone needs to pay for that. The ROI with YHJ’s gains in marketshare seem to outweigh the revenue differences. With the lack of advertising expenses, it seems that YHJ is returning a higher yeild.

Shareholders rejoice!

By: Juan

Juan — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:39:47 +0000

Publius is dead on.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:58:55 +0000

Sorry folks, I should have clarified. HotJobs is a distant third in terms of revenue. The HotJobs traffic numbers are strong. Unfortunately, selling postings on a wholesale basis to newspapers isn’t a great way to make money for either HJ or Monster.

By: Martin Snyder

Martin Snyder — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:20:28 +0000

Brian Microsoft has 21b on hand and probably another 25b in shareholder equity just in 2007. They have no debt at the moment and 66b coming thru the door in the next year. Just because you cant pay cash for a house (or may not want to) does not mean you cant buy it, for one of those real world examples. , I do believe that they can buy just about anything they want. YHOO will go down as one the all time bad deals-

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:48:03 +0000

Martin – MSFT does not have enought money to buy them!

See – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23008580/ (MSFT for the first time in its history would have to borrow money to make the acquisition.) I love MSFT but they do not have enough money to do “whatever” they want.

Publius – ok…in my neck of the woods CB and MSTR are the big recruiting sites. Perception -wise I have heard very little about HJ since the merger. I guess the other two companies have done a beter job contacting me and working with my company for our recruiting needs/postings.

If HJ has been building…good for them but it has been a quite build. Maybe a better marketing campaign would help them.

By: Suzy Q

Suzy Q — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:12:39 +0000

So many things could happen. All the scenarios above, plus some consolidating. Don’t forget about Monster – there is clearly some event in their future. Don’t forget about the future of CB and their position within Tribune. Will they be spun off? Will Gannett pick them up? McClatchy has never really been a big fan of being part of that trifecta. Will the newspapers decide that Yahoo! has done a better job addressing their needs and considate it all that way? A lot of newspaper veterans are involved with that project – for a reason. The hard part ahead is the inevitable “hurry up and wait” effect that this will cause. I hope it doesn’t stall too many deals – both on the direct sales side or on the newspaper side. If I were a CB or Monster (or any other site like Dice or JobFox) rep or partnership person, I’d be milking the opportunity to snag some business on the backs of this Microhoo! possibility. Microsoft illicits so many different reactions from people.

It’ll be interesting to see where Yahoo’s! layoffs are concentrated (they started today) and how much they affect the HJ team. Regardless of what happens, there is a roller coaster ride ahead!

By: Martin Snyder

Martin Snyder — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:19:32 +0000

Brian’s most silly assumption is that Microsoft does not have the money to do X. They have the money to do X, Y, Z, and AA just to start, if that’s what they want to do.

What’s Microsoft’s history look like when buying similar firms in similar spaces ? Do they start chopping out of the gate or let them be for awhile ?

I dont think a 4% stake (if thats what it is) would trouble fed regulators all that much. Who knows if they will be looking at YHOO businesses beyond ’search’ anyway ? Cant count on the feds to show much nuance or savvy esp in technology cases like this.

By: Publius

Publius — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:22:13 +0000

Looks like Rob has jumped on Brian’s ignore the facts express…….

In your last sentence Rob, you say that being owned by Yahoo hasn’t done anything for HotJobs. Again, this Brian-esque claim is based on assumption, not fact. HotJobs reps are now selling recruitment media, and sponsored search on the Yahoo network. This gives HotJobs clients a targeted audience of 135 million users, rather than the 40 million available through all 3 job boards combined. Without the leverage of Yahoo’s audience, the HotJobs product offering would be no more effective than that offered by Monster or CareerBuilder. The traffic on job boards is steadily decreasing, while the amount of career related searches on search engines is up 300% in 6 months (33 million/month on yahoo for those of you who appreciate facts). This suggests that the online recruitment landscape is changing rapidly. HotJobs recognized this early on, and has been able to leverage Yahoo traffic to offer solutions beyond the job board…..solutions that neither of its competitors can counter.

By: Publius

Publius — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:02:31 +0000

Normally I don’t waste my time on such conjecture but I wanted to address one of the comments made by Brian regarding HotJobs traffic.

Brian’s claim that Yahoo has let HotJobs slide into a distant # 3 role is factually incorrect. According to the latest media metric numbers, HotJobs is #2 in the space with 37.3% market share. Monster and CareerBuilder were 24.3% and 53.1% respectively. Even more impressive are the YoY growth rates. HotJobs has grown 63% YoY, while Monsters growth was -8, and CareerBuilder’s was 17%. So how did this happen? Yahoo has invested millions in a new state of the art operating platform for HotJobs. Additionally, Yahoo’s co-branding deal with a consortium of newspapers has paid dividends for HotJobs, as it has meant huge increases in traffic in markets in which HotJobs was relatively unknown a year ago.

The suggestion that Yahoo has let HotJobs slide ignores the facts. Nice try Brian; better luck next time.