July 1, 2001

3:51 PM

Monster.com parent buys HotJobs.TMP, the parent company of Monster.com, has acquired HotJobs for $460 million in stock. Although they plan to maintain HotJobs as a "stand-alone brand" the jobs and resume databases will be merged. I'm really skeptical -- virtually everyone I know searched both Monster and HotJobs, and posted resumes on both places, so what are they really getting but duplication? (HotJobs used to have a very distinctive approach -- no headhunters, in short -- but it had backed off of that recently.)
posted by MattD (5 comments total)

How odd. I mean, really. I've searched through both of these before. . .and I don't see the point in this merge. Maybe they get more money, but I don't think one has any better way of doing the job search and resume post than the other does.. Why merge if there's no real gain? Or is there something great gotten that I just don't know about?
posted by Twalison at 4:14 PM on July 1, 2001

What are they getting? Hotjobs - or at least their owners - are getting lots of cash. Monster is getting rid of their main competition.
posted by aaron at 4:51 PM on July 1, 2001

TMP bought another rival, FlipDog.com, a few weeks back -- FlipDog powered the career center (ew, that sounds so marketingspeak, sorry) at Citysearch, my (for the next 12 hours at least) place of employment. TMP decided to dissolve the relationship between FlipDog and CS pretty much right after the buyout occurred.

Vertical integration, la la la, it's happening all over, la la la. Are there any other job sites out there with the reach of any of TMP's properties?
posted by maura at 6:39 PM on July 1, 2001

Dice.com seems to be pretty good for high-tech. I always hated hotjobs.com's layout. Monster has always been more intuitive and the agents worked better.
posted by machaus at 7:28 PM on July 1, 2001

Monster may be more intuitive than HotJobs but, as of late, the job diversity (at least in my neck of the woods) has been sorely lacking. HotJobs has offered up a far greater variety. The interface needs help, though.

FlipDog is another resource I like, and I'm surprised to learn that TMP has its hand in all of these bowls.

Seeing the job databases integrated between HotJobs and Monster is what bugs me the most. If I want the jobs Monster offers, I'll go to Monster. Don't cram it down my throat.
posted by hijinx at 9:13 PM on July 1, 2001