Yahoo sells HotJobs to Monster for $225 million

Job-hunting service provider Monster Worldwide is to buy Yahoo's HotJobs Web site for US$225 million under an agreement announced between the companies on Wednesday.

As part of the deal, Monster will provide career and jobs content on the Yahoo home page for three years in the U.S. and Canada. In return, Yahoo will make annual payments to Monster based on clicks and how many people express interest in job postings. Monster will be able to negotiate similar deals with Yahoo subsidiaries in other countries.

It's the latest move by Carol Bartz, who became Yahoo's CEO early last year, to narrow the company's focus and try to accelerate its growth. Yahoo has been losing share in the search market to Google and Microsoft.

Last year Bartz signed a deal to outsource Yahoo's search operations to Microsoft. Under the five-year plan, Yahoo will use Microsoft Bing as its underlying search engine, while Yahoo will handle premium search advertising sales for both companies.

The combination of Monster and HotJobs will reduce competition in the market, but Monster said it should also make it easier to match job openings with job seekers, since two separate resources will now be pooled together.

"Through the combination of Monster and HotJobs job postings, job seekers will have access to more job opportunities in one place in those industries currently leading job creation, including healthcare, finance and insurance, retail, manufacturing, information and wholesale trade," the companies said in a statement.

Monster said it will be able to offer employers a larger pool of candidates in more geographies and industries. HotJobs averaged 12.6 million unique visitors per month last year, Monster said, citing Media Metrix comScore figures.

The deal is subject to antitrust and other regulatory approvals, the companies said. They expect it to close in the third quarter, subject to approvals.