Microsoft Corp announced it has acquired a minority stake in job-listings partner CareerBuilder.com and will use that job-search engine on MSN sites overseas in a bid to capture more of the classified advertising money migrating to the Web.
Reston, Virginia-based CareerBuilder has been the exclusive provider of job listings to Microsoft's MSN Careers site since 2004.
The job site's newspaper industry majority owners use CareerBuilder's technology for their own online classifieds and have benefited from the site's US growth as print classified advertising revenue plunged in recent years.
Microsoft declined to say on Wednesday how much it paid for a 4 percent stake. CareerBuilder said newspaper publishers Gannett Co and Tribune Co each hold 40.8 percent of the company and McClatchy Co now holds 14.4 percent.
Microsoft's move from partner to owner is the latest development in a series of linkups between newspaper businesses and the most powerful Web companies, as both industries fight for the growing pool of ad dollars shifting to the Internet.
More than 260 US newspapers, including those owned by McClatchy, the third-biggest US publisher based on circulation, have signed on with Yahoo Inc to sell advertising online, including employment classifieds. Google Inc has also been working with some of the nation's largest newspapers to broker print advertising.
CareerBuilder topped the list of "career development" sites with 15.4 million unique visitors in the US in March, research group Nielsen/NetRatings said.
Monster Worldwide Inc, which has also pursued newspaper partnerships this year, followed with 8 million visitors. Yahoo's HotJobs clocked 5.4 million visitors, the researchers said, but grew 14 percent over last year while CareerBuilder's US audience slipped 3 percent.
Microsoft is putting a defense in place so CareerBuilder can't be acquired by Google or someone else, said Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group.
Microsoft also said on Wednesday that it extended its deal to use CareerBuilder content exclusively on MSN until 2013, and it said CareerBuilder will pay US$443 million over seven years for the arrangement. Microsoft will also add CareerBuilder content to international MSN sites, mostly in Europe, starting in some countries later this year.
CareerBuilder, for its part, said the overseas traffic deal will help it expand into new markets.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2