Early this morning the news broke that staffing company Randstad is buying Monster Worldwide. The Trumpasaurus finally has a new home. After several years of looking for a new owner, Monster will stay a stand alone company under the Dutch based Randstad.
This news continues a string of acquisitions that have rocked the online recruiting world recently… namely Linkedin and SimplyHired being scooped up.
It also signals a renewed interest in established job boards. I have spoken to several companies in the past few months looking to buy up boards with strong cash flows. The interest is especially strong from companies in Europe. They are actively looking to acquire sites with footholds in the U.S. job market.
SIDE NOTE: A local midwestern job board is for sale. Details here.
Players in our space are waking up to the fact that traditional job boards are valuable assets. Many of them have loyal customers and deliver a steady stream of applicants. Employers will always need places to post their jobs. Job boards are their first and favorite choice.
The consolidation wave currently underway is enabling companies like Randstad and others to offer a deeper suite of services. This trend is only going to continue.Companies like Snagajob and CareerBuilder offer much more than job postings. I have long believed that job boards make a complimentary target for many types of recruiting vendors.
“In an era of massive technological change, employers are challenged to identify better ways to source and engage talent,” said Jacques van den Broek, CEO of Randstad. That’s right.
Most employers still struggle with marketing their jobs. That’s why job boards are so valuable. They know how to get those jobs in front of the right people. They are in a sense, the ‘marketing arm’ of employers.
I also think a lot of this market activity is being driven by Recruit Holdings, the parent company of Indeed, based in Japan. They are buying up everything from job boards to staffing firms in their quest to be the number 1 player in HR/recruiting. Others are seeing this and trying to keep up. The online recruiting market is slowly being globalized.
I look forward to what lies ahead.