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Yahoo! snares HotJobs
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December 27, 2001: 10:11 a.m. ET
Yahoo! signs agreement to acquire online job site after TMP refuses to up offer.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Yahoo! Inc. inked a pact to acquire online job site HotJobs.com for $436 million Thursday after rival TMP Worldwide Inc. declined to raise its bid.
TMP (TMPW: up $2.08 to $43.96, Research, Estimates), which owns another online job site, Monster.com, said in a brief statement that it had offered "full and fair" value for HotJobs (TRUE: down $0.04 to $1.66, Research, Estimates) ]] and that it would not be in the best interests of TMP shareholders to alter the terms.
Hours later Yahoo! (YHOO: up $0.39 to $17.90, Research, Estimates) announced it entered into a definitive agreement with HotJobs.com to buy the company for $10.50 per share.
HotJobs.com said Monday it would accept Yahoo!'s bid unless TMP raised its offer. The value of TMP's bid had dropped to about $341 million from $498 million when it was announced June 29 due to a drop in its stock price.
Based on Wednesday's closing prices, TMP's stock offer for HotJobs was valued at about $355 million.
HotJobs had given TMP until Thursday to sweeten its offer, saying otherwise it would accept the competing bid.
HotJobs said Thursday it has paid TMP a $15 million termination fee and reimbursement of $2 million of expenses.
"HotJobs bolsters our listings offering by instantly positioning Yahoo! as the number two player in the online recruiting segment, which we believe to be one of the fastest growing opportunities within online classifieds," said Terry Semel, Yahoo! chairman and CEO, in a statement.
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The TMP offer has been held up by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, reportedly due to antitrust concerns.
The combination of TMP and HotJobs would have brought together the two most formidable players in online recruitment, which together would have held more than 14 million resumes and 650,000 job listings.
The jobs listings business shows resilience in an economic recession, analysts have said, because people continue to look for employment when times go sour. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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