A billion gets you CareerBuilder: news of the recruitment marketing world

There has been no shortage of activity in the job board and recruitment marketing world since our last roundup – just check out the first bullet below! I also find it interesting that investment dollars continue to flow in, albeit perhaps at a slightly reduced rate from a few years ago. So let’s take a look:

• PE firm angling to buy CareerBuilder: Private equity firm GTCR is in exclusive talks to acquire U.S. job-hunting website CareerBuilder LLC for more than $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. The firm prevailed in an auction for CareerBuilder, and is in the process of trying to finalize the terms of a deal, the people said this week, cautioning that it is still possible that the negotiations end without an agreement. Well, I did not see this one coming – nor did anyone else I’ve talked with; I think most of us thought the buyer would be another staffing firm or non-U.S. job board.
• WayUp lands more moolah:  WayUp – which also showed up in last month’s roundup – announced it raised $18.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Trinity Ventures. Originally a job and internship marketplace for college students, 15% of WayUp’s user base is now considered “recent graduates” looking for their second or even third full-time job. As a result, WayUp’s management is moving past the college grad market. The site claims 3.5 million users. Wonder who they’ll buy with their newly found money?
• LinkedIn wants to grow: Ignoring the HR pundits (including this one), Microsoft’s Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood says that the Microsoft/LI deals isn’t about finding synergies and duplicate costs but about growing its user base. Although…as Microsoft integrates LinkedIn into its office productivity tools, there will be more combining of the sales teams. Microsoft revealed that LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman has joined its board – and as a board member, Hoffman will be Microsoft’s ambassador in the Silicon Valley. I see…more LI acquisitions.
• TextRecruit raises funds: TextRecruit has raised $3 million in series A financing, led by San Francisco-based investment firm SignalFire. The company has formed integrated strategic partnerships with applicant tracking systems such as ADP, iCIMS, Greenhouse, Jobvite, Lever, Avature, Telemetry, and SmartRecruiters, as well as job boards such as Beyond.com and Careerbuilder. This is not the last we will hear from them, I daresay.
• JobToday does a big media deal: job finder app Job Today announced a new media-for-equity deal worth $35 million. The Accel-backed startup already has three media investors: Astremedia (Spain), Channel 4 (UK) and German Media Pool VC — two of whom (Astremedia and German Media Pool) are part of the new media for equity deal, along with a second German broadcaster, RTL Germany (which owns a strategic minority shareholding in Astremedia). “The media players are giving us broadcasting inventory with a gross value of $35 million — in exchange for which they get equity stake in the company,” confirms co-founder Polina Montano. Sounds like a smart growth move.
• Zhaopin merging with SEEK: Chinese jobs site operator Zhaopin Ltd. is entering into a definitive agreement and plan of merger with Australian-based, global recruitment group Seek International Investments, the current controlling shareholder of the company. In other SEEK news, the company is raising €1 Billion on the Singapore stock exchange via the issue of debt in the form of interest bearing notes. What will they do next?
• TAtech sets traffic standards: TAtech has launched the TAtech Traffic Quality Declaration, a voluntary self-evaluation that provides a framework for publishers to explain their traffic measurement practices. The Traffic Quality Declaration is available to all publishers for review & completion, regardless of TAtech membership status.

That about covers it for this time – more next month!

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