career builder

CareerBuilder.com is the largest online employment website in the United States, with more than 23 million unique visitors each month and a 34% market share of help-wanted web sites in the United States.^[2] CareerBuilder.com provides online career search services for more than 1,900 partners as of March 2008, including 140 newspapers and portals such as AOL and MSN. It was founded in 1994.

Careerbuilder.com is jointly owned by the Gannett Company, The McClatchy Company and the Tribune Company.^[3] A 2007 deal was completed, in which Microsoft will acquire a minority stake in the firm and continue its relationship through 2013 with CareerBuilder as the exclusive content provider for the MSN Careers channel.^[4]

On September 3, 2008, Gannett acquired an additional 10% stake in CareerBuilder from Tribune for $135 million. Ownership stakes as of that date are as follows: Gannett (50.8%), Tribune (30.8%), McClatchy (14.4%), and Microsoft (4%).

Company Information

CareerBuilder.com is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, has more than 2,500 employees, and is under the leadership of CEO Matt Ferguson. It was founded in 1994 by Rob McGovern, who is now the CEO/founder of Jobfox.

After several years of profit, CareerBuilder.com suffered challenges related to the economic downturn in 2008. The company announced layoffs in December 2008, affecting approximately 300 employees. [1]

[edit]History

Career Builder began in 1994 as NetStart Inc. selling software to companies for listing job openings on their Web sites and the ability to manage the incoming e-mails those listings created. After an influx of two million dollars in investment capital^[5] the company transported this software, named CareerBuilder to its own web address, at first listing the job openings from the companies who utilized the software.^[6] NetStart Inc. changed its name in 1998 to operate under the name of their software, CareerBuilder. ^[7] The newly christened company received a further influx of seven million dollars from investment firms such as New Enterprise Associates to expand their operations.^[8]

The company announced their decision to go public in April 1999.^[9] The company's IPO on May 12, 1999 raised $8 million more than initially forecast, but was less successful than other Net offerings of the time. In its first day of trading, the stock opened at $17.50 and rose as high as $20 before closing at $16.^[10] Microsoft moved quickly to acquire a minority stake in the company in exchange for using the company's database on their own web portal.^[11]

After being purchased in a joint venture by Knight Ridder and Tribune Company in July 2000^[12] for $8 a share^[13] CareerBuilder absorbed competitor boards CareerPath.com and then Headhunter.net which had already acquired CareerMosaic. Even with these aggressive mergers CareerBuilder still trailed behind the number one employment site Jobsonline.com, number two Monster.com and number three Hotjobs.com. ^[14]

In 2001, major newspapers owned by Knight Ridder and the Tribune Company merged their help wanted sections with the online component. ^[15] Rob McGovern was replaced as CEO in March 2002 by Robert Montgomery. ^[16] Gannett purchased a one-third interest in the company for $98.3 million in 2002, adding the CareerBuilder brand to its 90 newspapers nationwide.^[17]

The McClatchy Company purchased Knight Ridder $4.5 billion in stock and cash in March 2006. ^[18