SAN FRANCISCO - Online employment-hunting service Monster Worldwide announced on Wednesday that it is buying the Yahoo! HotJob recruitment website for US$225 million in cash. 'Bringing together Monster and HotJobs creates even greater access and opportunities for both recruiters and job seekers,' said Yahoo! executive vice president Hilary Schneider. Internet pioneer Yahoo! has been cutting costs and streamlining its online focus in the face of tough competition from Google and the aftermath of a botched takeover campaign by software giant Microsoft.

Terms of the deal include Monster providing job-related postings for Yahoo!'s homepage in the United States and Canada for three years, being paid based on clicks and other 'expressions of interest'. 'HotJobs with its significant customer base plus the traffic agreement are an ideal complement to Monster's innovative recruitment solutions and global reach,' said Monster chief executive officer Sal Iannuzzi.

Monster believes the acquisition will enable it to offer employers a 'significantly larger pool of candidates' given that industry-tracker comScore reported that an average of 12.6 million people monthly visit HotJobs. HotJobs has features and tools crafted for people seeking jobs as well as those looking to hire. Yahoo! bought the firm in 2002 in a stock-and-cash deal valued at US$436 million, besting a bid by Monster at that time.

The sale of HotJobs to Monster comes a week after Yahoo! reversed losses of a year ago and posted its best quarterly net profit since Carol Bartz took over as chief executive. The Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo! reported a fourth-quarter net profit of US$153 million compared with a loss of US$303 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue, however, continued to slide at the Internet giant, falling four per cent in the quarter which ended on Dec 31 to US$1.732 billion. Yahoo! said its annual net profit rose 43 per cent to US$598 million while annual revenue fell 10 per cent to US$6.46 billion.

Ms Bartz has focused on aggressive cost-cutting since taking over the reins of the company a year ago. She said in an earnings conference call that Yahoo! has 'many more new products planned for this year' and would also be looking to make acquisitions.

'For us, 2010 is about acquisitions to make Yahoo! even stronger,' she said, although she cautioned that the company does not plan any big purchases. Ms Bartz, a former CEO of software firm Autodesk, took over as Yahoo! chief executive in January 2009, replacing founder Jerry Yang, who stepped down amid criticism of his rejection of a US$47-billion takeover bid by Microsoft.

Yahoo! and Microsoft, after months of negotiations, unveiled a 10-year Web search and advertising partnership in late July that set the stage for a joint offensive against Google. Under the agreement, Yahoo! will use Microsoft's Bing search engine on its own sites while Yahoo! will provide the exclusive global sales force for premium advertisers. - AFP

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