Google and Microsoft Eyeing Job Search
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | May 9, 2007 | Share This
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Both Google and Microsoft are reportedly looking into job search sites. Last week, there was some speculation that Google had its eye on SimplyHired, and then today, Microsoft announced its purchased of a minority equity stake in CareerBuilder.
For Microsoft, the alliance with CareerBuilder is an extension of their existing business relationship. From the press release,
“The relationship between Microsoft and CareerBuilder began in January 2004 when CareerBuilder became the exclusive job search engine for the MSN Careers channel in the U.S. CareerBuilder’s monthly traffic grew by nearly 10 million unique visitors from 2003 to 2004 with MSN contributing a significant portion of the increased traffic…The new agreement is also performance-based with financial payments driven by the quality and quantity of traffic delivered. The new agreement provides for an extension to 2013, whereby CareerBuilder will pay MSN up to $443 million over the course of seven years to serve as the exclusive job search engine on the MSN Careers channel.”
The Google/SimplyHired deal, on the other hand, is a rumored full acquisition. As alarm:clock writes,
“Simply Hired almost seems like it was built to be acquired by Google. Its angels are GOOG angels, its based in Mountain View, it targets the long tail and landed a MySpace deal, and Google doesn’t have a job search tool.”
The suggestion that Google’s mere lack of a job search tool implicates their intent to buy is a little weak. As VCRatings points out, SimplyHired doesn’t fit with Google’s other recent acquisitions,
“Google has acquired a lot of companies in the past six years and a grand total of two were focused on search. This is something Google does best and doesn’t need to go outside the Googleplex for in all but the most bleeding edge of cases.”
Topics: Google, Investment, M&A, Microsoft, Search: News, Search: Vertical |