Microsoft is trying to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion, a 62% premium over Yahoo’s recent price. I have no idea whether Yahoo’s board will say yes (I can’t find a solid reason to say no). Let’s just assume that this deal will go through: a combined MS and Yahoo also means a combined CareerBuilder and HotJobs, which will represents more than 50% of the market share and will put huge pressure on Monster. So, let’s make another assumption: after years of rumor, Monster decides to be acquired by Google. So instead of three 800-pound gorillas, we will have two 1000-pound gorillas in this space. Now, what does mean to the industry? I think there will be some further consolidations among the top players, and this is exactly a great opportunity for a new generation of job search sites to emerge. While the top players are busy searching for their synergy and continuing to try their best to please the employers, a new generation of career sites built on the belief of user-centric thinking will gain a larger user base by providing easy to use, more user friendly services and applications.
While others see chaos, we see opportunities. There is no better situation for this quote from JFK: “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters–one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.”
