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Media chains to buy online job sites
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July 17, 2000: 4:39 p.m. ET
Knight Ridder, Tribune Co. to buy online job sites CareerBuilder, CareerPath
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Media giants Knight Ridder and Tribune Co. agreed Monday to acquire two online recruitment sites, CareerPath.com Inc. and CareerBuilder Inc.; a move aimed at gaining an edge in the already crowded online recruiting market.
Knight Ridder and Tribune will pay $8 a share for Reston, Va.-based CareerBuilder (CBDR: Research, Estimates); a deal worth about $194 million. CareerBuilder is the world's largest Internet recruiting site with annual revenue of $14.9 million.
The terms of the CareerPath.com deal was not disclosed.
 CareerPath and CareerBuilder are expected to merge to form a new, privately held, independent company owned by KnightRidder.com and operated by CareerBuilder, the companies said.
Layoffs are expected at CareerPath, but not at CareerBuilder, a source close to the deal said Monday. The specific number of layoffs were not disclosed.
San Jose, Calif.-based Knight Ridder, the second-largest U.S. newspaper publisher, and Chicago-based Tribune Co. (TRB: Research, Estimates) publisher of the Chicago Tribune, are already part owners of CareerPath.com.
Knight Ridder (KRI: Research, Estimates) posts annual sales of $3.2 billion, while Tribune also has $3.2 billion in annual sales through its publishing, television, radio and interactive news and information operations.
The two companies plan to buy the remaining interests in CareerPath from partners: New York Times Co. (NYT: Research, Estimates); The Washington Post Co. (WPO: Research, Estimates); Cox Interactive Media (COX: Research, Estimates); Gannett Co. (GCI: Research, Estimates); and The Hearst Corp., in a cash-for-stock merger.
Knight Ridder and Tribune hope the combination will position CareerBuilder to compete with Monster.com, the largest online recruiting site in terms of revenue, said Polk Lafoon, a Knight Ridder spokesman. CareerBuilder is the largest site in terms of available jobs with more than 3 million jobs.
Monster.com is owned by TMP Worldwide (TMPW: Research, Estimates).
"CareerPath has built one of the most popular recruitment sites on the Web," said Stephen St. Marie, chief executive officer of CareerPath.com. "The combination with CareerBuilder will create a truly powerful national and local online recruitment network."
Shares of CareerBuilder jumped 3-21/32 to 7-25/32 shortly before the close of markets Monday. Knight Ridder shares were down 1/16 to 55, and Tribune shares rose 1/8 to 34-3/8. 
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