The buyer for SimplyHired’s assets will be Recruit Holdings Co., the parent company of Indeed, I have learned through a trusted source. SimplyHired.com will most likely become backfill for Indeed’s listings adding a few more percentage points to their already large market share when it comes to source of hire.
The “chatter” among industry execs was already pointing to them as the buyer. And it make sense considering the following;
- Recruit is on a mission to be number one in HR. It actually says so right on their home page.
- Recruit is currently the most active buyer of HR tech, Staffing firms and other businesses in the space. Just look at their press releases.
- They don’t need the employees of SH. They’re all redundant which is why they will be losing their jobs. Although I imagine some workers such as developers at SH may be given job offers.
- Few others in the online recruiting space could’ve afforded to buy SH. Recruit has tons of cash and they are spending it.
SimplyHired’s sales were in the $20-$25 million dollar range according to a former sales exec I heard from. So I’m pegging the acquisition price to be in the $40-$50 million dollar range. That’s just a guesstimate. One industry insider I spoke with thinks its much less.
The decision to sell apparently came from the SH board. Sounds like the investors wanted their money back (after 10+ years of waiting) and couldn’t resist an offer from the biggest player in the industry. One wonders if other aggregators could be on Recruit’s radar.
I used to think SimplyHired would have been a great purchase for LinkedIn back in the day. It would have helped them counteract Indeed’s lead in the TA space. Both companies grew up in Silicon Valley and LI could have used SH to augment its listings and offer added value to its clients. Alas, that shipped has now sailed.
