Dive Brief:
- GTCR LLC, a private equity firm, is in the lead in takeover talks for job-hunting website CareerBuilder, reports Reuters. GTCR could pay more than $1 billion for the purchase, the latest in a string of online acquisitions in the HR space. GTCR is trying to finalize a deal after prevailing in an auction, although observers caution a deal could still fall apart.
- CareerBuilder's owners — Tegna Inc., The McClatchy Co. and the Tribune Media Co. — say the buy-out relieves them of a non-core aspect of the business.
- TV station operator Tegna has a 56% stake in CareerBuilder, whose operating performance Moody's Investors Service called “weak,” says Reuters.
Dive Insight:
The mergers and acquisitions of online recruitment and job sites is shaping up to be a trend. A handful of high-profile transactions, like Microsoft buying LinkedIn and Randstad Holding NV taking over Monster Worldwide Inc., are worth millions and billions of dollars. Buyers hope to cash in on job sites’ membership lists, as Reuters points out.
Recruiters won’t likely see adverse effects from these take-overs. As long as employers are in a jobseekers’ market, like the current one, and continue to struggle to close the skills gap, they’ll look to job sites, social media and other broad digital sources for talent to try and meet potential employees where they are.
CareerBuilder and Monster remain major names in the aggregate job ad business. Today, both companies offer more specialized services as well, including career advice. Such services help build robust, loyal membership rosters and have helped make such services attractive acquisition targets. With only a handful of such services out there, it remains to be seen how long this trend will sustain.