Monster Goes Dark & SmartRecruiters Acquisition
Happy Friday, Job Board Doctor friends!
There’s a lot on my mind this week, so let’s get straight to it.
- CareerBuilder + Monster asset sales close
- Monster Europe and Canada go dark
- SmartRecruiters Acquisition Alert
CareerBuilder + Monster Sold
From SIA, on July 31st—just over a month after the bankruptcy filing—the sale of CareerBuilder + Monster and their respective businesses was finalized.
So, can we finally close this chapter and write our last thoughts on the job board industry’s founding giants?
Nope – Not yet.
Monster Europe and Canada Go Dark
Following the bankruptcy court’s sale approval on July 28th, the transition process accelerated—seemingly with haste, and in my view, haphazardly.
On July 30th, Monster sites across Europe and Canada began redirecting to a transition page:
The message? “The site is currently unavailable. Thank you for your patience.” Meanwhile, the Monster site selector still lists all non-U.S. sites—which all redirect to the same transition page.
Unfortunately, the communication to employees, partners, and customers appears even less eloquent.
Udo Voelke, Board Member of Raven51 AG (a German recruitment advertising agency), shared an email received from the Monster Germany team after the site went down.
The translated version indicates the team was neither consulted nor forewarned about the shutdown.
But WHY Now?
In the midst of bankruptcy chaos, poor optics (and reality) around how Monster employees outside the U.S. have been treated, and no buyer for the European commercial business—why pull the plug now?
Why not a thoughtful, well-communicated winding down process?
From where I sit, there are two potential explanations:
1. The WARN Notice
As first reported by our team, U.S. employees were notified their last day is August 4th, 2025, with the U.S. headquarters slated for closure.
So, perhaps with the HQ days from being deserted, they rushed to sever all European systems access—forcing a hard launch into liquidation for the international assets.
This feels, at best, stupid. And at worst? Really, really stupid.
If the goal is to liquidate, why tank the value of those domains—instantly killing decades of content, trust, and SEO?
2. The Asset Purchase Agreement (APA)
After reviewing the APA filed Monday for the Job Boards business, I believe the reasoning becomes clearer.
In simple terms:
The APA includes the purchase of the “Business” and all “Business IP,” which encompasses all Monster and CareerBuilder IT and IP—and excludes the “Non-Core Business.”
According to the APA definitions:
- IT = “Job-Board Technology” used by both the Core and Non-Core Business
- IP = all names, domains, and trademarks
- Non-Core Business = Monster Government Services (MGS) and Monster Media Properties (MMP), including Military.com and Fastweb.com
What does this mean?
The “Job-Board Technology” sold to BOLD supports all Monster and CareerBuilder sites, including the international ones, plus MGS and MMP.
However, only MGS and MMP are explicitly granted a 12-month license to continue using the tech.
From the APA: “The Buyer shall provide to the applicable Third-Party Buyer… a license for no less than twelve (12) months to use the Job-Board Technology in substantially the same manner…”
The international commercial business? No such grace period. So, as of July 31, the European sites lost access to the very tech needed to operate or wind down the business.
Did BOLD acquire the international domains?
Maybe? It makes sense if BOLD owns the Monster trademarks and IP globally. But the specific domains aren’t listed in the APA—they are detailed in the Transition Services Agreement, which hasn’t yet been made public.
Acquisition Alert: SAP to Acquire SmartRecruiters
Announced today: SAP has entered into an agreement to acquire SmartRecruiters, with a Q4 2025 close expected.
SmartRecruiters CEO Rebecca Carr from the press release:
“SmartRecruiters’ mission has always been to make hiring easy. Joining forces with SAP presents a tremendous opportunity for enterprises worldwide to benefit from our industry-leading approach to talent acquisition. I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity this planned acquisition presents for our customers, partners and employees as we build the future of hiring together.”
Sale price hasn’t been disclosed but is rumored to exceed $1 billion USD.
🚨Reality Check
This week, we hear from two voices:
Peter Zollman, Founder of the AIM Group: In a scorching commentary, Peter calls out Randstad directly:
“Here’s a blatant lie by a company that claims to be in the business of people: ‘We are respectful. We value our relationships and treat people well.’”
Lynsey McIlwraith: A 17-year Monster Europe employee shares her story on LinkedIn.
What is next in the CareerBuilder + Monster saga?
Will anyone be held responsible? I will be digging into some more findings from the bankruptcy filing, hoping to report about positive employee transitions to BOLD and whatever else I can dig up.
Next week, we hear from Michael Woodrow with updated jobs numbers from AspenTech.
Until Next Time,
Julie “The Doc” Sowash
[Want to get Job Board Doctor posts via email? Subscribe here.]
[Got a tip, document or intel you want to share with the Doc? Tell me.]
Comments (0)