Shutdown the Papers and Keep the Career Builder Stake
That’s a rather extravagant-attention-getting headline, but at the core is some truth. Of course, McClatchey seems to be on the right course, stripping its Knight Ridder purchase of the vanity assets in larger slower growing markets (there’s sure to be a Silicon Valley exec who fancies himself a newspaper mogul, or at least a custodian of the local paper), and concentrating on direct marketing and the online assets.
Monster is a $6bn company now. McClatchey now has a one-third stake in CareerBuilder, which is nearly equal to Monster and has greater momentum.
For those Mathematicians out there, they’ll know that 1/3 of $6bn (assuming Careerbuilder equals Monster at this point in time) doesn’t equal the $4.5bn that McClatchey paid. But it’s a big part of the deal and no one has mentioned, more than in passing, the significance of the stake. Careerbuilder will prove the diamond in the paperstack.
For a more considered and sharper analysis of the transaction, be sure to read Peter Krasilovsky’s blog post.
