Reveille and Hyperbole: Hundreds of leading African-American students were
recently connected with recruiting executives from 60 prominent companies,
including Wal-Mart, Bank of America, AT&T and Nike, thanks to a partnership
between the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund (TMSF) and
TalentPen, a candidate collection and
personality matching system. The New York-based college fund promotes equal
access to higher education, working with 47 historically black public colleges
and universities to prepare the brightest students for today's workforce.
TalentPen was an instrumental partner for TMSF's Sixth Annual Leadership
Institute, a November conference that prepares new graduates for corporate
employment.
HPM Bootcamp, a
nationwide series of three-day, intensive training sessions geared toward
corporate leaders in search of a hands-on approach to implementing health and
productivity management (HPM) strategies, has joined forces with the World
Congress 2nd Annual Health & Human Capital Management (HHCM) Congress as part of
a professional affiliation to benefit employers across the nation. The
synergistic pairing "will allow employers of all sizes access to a full range of
HPM educational and learning experiences," explains Les C. Meyer, a seasoned
healthcare strategist and CEO of HPM Advisors, Inc., a Denver, Colo.-based think
tank and creator of HPM Bootcamp. He calls the World Congress's upcoming HHCM
Congress "one of the industry's premier health management and human capital
events."
BrightMove version 2.4 is here and live. The
BrightMove Applicant Tracking system is
now more customized to the needs of individual companies. BrightMove version 2.4
gives its user base more flexibility and control, ensuring that professionals
are able to use BrightMove to manage unique and special recruiting and hiring
processes. Version 2.4 also makes it easy to comply with the new Federal
Department of Labor OFCCP regulations. BrightMove Applicant Tracking System is
now even better, more flexible, and OFCCP compliant.
What does it take to find the right job? How do job seekers position themselves
to get noticed by employers? And, what are some of the best ways to bypass the
gatekeepers inside a company and reach the real hiring authority? On Friday,
December 15, 2006, the American Marketing
Association, Dallas-Fort Worth Chapter, will present a "Guerrilla Job
Hunting" Seminar from 8-10 AM at Hackberry Creek Country Club, Irving, TX. A
panel of career experts with more than 60 years combined experience counseling
marketing and business professionals will share their insights on the best ways
for job seekers to find a new position or enhance their present opportunities
for career growth. Among the topics to be discussed are:
How to create a brand identity that separates a candidate
from the competition?
Conducting a self-assessment of skills that identifies
your best areas for success.
Creating cover letters that get read and resumes that
resonate with employers.
What are the words, the format and the tone essential to
an effective resume?
How to develop a job search strategy that combines on-
and offline marketing?
What are the latest tools and techniques available to
improve job hunting results?
According to the 2007 Talent Outlook Survey conducted by
Cytiva Software Inc. (TSX-V: CRX), HR professionals and recruiters had a harder
time this finding good candidates in 2006. And they expect things to get worse
in 2007. Cytiva, developers of the SonicRecruit on demand talent
acquisition system, surveyed over 100 HR and recruiting professionals. The
survey was designed to find out if finding good candidates is getting more
difficult and learn what companies are planning to do about increasing their
staffing success. According to the survey, 62% of respondents believed that
finding good candidates was more difficult in 2006 than in 2005. What's more 61%
believed this trend would continue in 2007. The difficulty in finding good
candidates was felt most in professional and management employee categories.
Fewer respondents felt that finding good hourly position candidates was harder,
with only 54% reporting more difficulty in 2006.
MBP Overview: What's Going On in the Newspaper Industry,
Updated
The struggle newspapers are currently engaged in may be one for their very
existence: consumers are getting their news from a variety of new sources,
mostly online, so readership of the printed product is declining, and
advertisers are following the migration, shifting dollars away from print
newspapers and opting instead to spend that money online where they can take a
more targeted approach. Meanwhile, costs of publishing a print edition are
rising. (Media
Buyer)
Here's A Bold Idea For Newspapers Trying
To Attract Back Young Readers (Mostly Unsuccessfully): Forget It And Concentrate On Your Core Readers 45 and Older
Newspapers have been trying whatever they can to attract back younger readers
special sections, something for the young on almost every page -- but at the end
of the day those young readers are still slipping away to the Internet. So why
not just throw in the towel and concentrate on those readers who really do want
their daily newspaper read those aged 45 and over. (FTM)
Letter from the Wall Street Meetings:
Content Comes Center Stage
Newspaper companies tout online innovations at meetings with investors and
analysts.
When newspaper executives pitch their companies to investors and analysts at
twice-yearly meetings in New York, there is always a buzzword or two in the air.
Last week it was "transformation." Or, as a variant: "transformational." In
other words, the industry may be stuck in the mud financially, but big changes
are in progress. Operating results have been so bad for so long now -- two
years -- that the "brighter future" theme was to be expected. What was
surprising was that journalism, especially innovative online content, was
prominent in many presentations. And the leader of the pack: Gannett. (Poynter
Online)
Newspapers Seeing Hard Times Across the Atlantic as Well
Across the Atlantic, things are tough for French newspaper publishers, too,
and don't look to improve soon. "Newspaper executives are fairly pessimistic
about the future," Antoine de Tarl้, the vice president of France's largest
daily, Ouest-France, tells E&P. "Circulation is going down by 1.5% or 2% per
year, and the competition with the Internet and the free sheets is very tough."
(Editor
and Publisher)
ONLINE NEWSPAPER ADVERTISING JUMPS 35 PERCENT IN Q1 Eighth Consecutive Quarter of Double Digit Online Increases;
Print and Online Newspaper Advertising Up 1.8 Percent;
Real Estate advertising climbs more than 26 percent
Advertising expenditures for newspaper Web sites increased by 34.9 percent to
$613 million in the first quarter versus the same period a year ago, according
to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America. Print and
online expenditures together totaled $11.1 billion for the first quarter of
2006, a 1.8 percent year-over-year increase. Spending for print ads in
newspapers totaled $10.5 billion, up 0.3 percent versus the same period a year
earlier led by strong gains in real estate advertising. (NAA)
UK: Skills shortage biggest threat to London A shortage of skilled staff is proving the biggest barrier to business in
London, according to a survey from the CBI and KPMG. It found 67% of
respondents said they expect skills shortages to be the biggest obstacle to
business growth over the next six months, up from 53% a year ago. Upward
pressure on wages is the other major concern. It found businesses are
increasingly turning to migrant workers to address the skills gap, with half
reliant on staff from other EU countries, and 37% on non-EU workers. (Recruiter)
People not pages
ABC ELECTRONIC (the UK's leading auditors of internet traffic figures) has
announced that Unique Users rather than Page Views will be the new mandatory
metric for sites undertaking audits. This is great on a number of levels, but
mostly because Unique Users is a much more relevant metric for advertisers than
Page Views, particularly in the recruitment space. Consumer advertisers might be
interested in the total number of page views a site generates if they are
booking banners on a CPM basis, but for recruitment advertisers it's all about
the audience of the site (and this is the reason that NORAS has always used ABC
E Unique User numbers, but not included Page View figures). (Online
ecruitment)
US: AdWords
Coordinator - Mountain View
Mutiple positions available in Mountain View, CA.
Are you excited by working with customers and helping them get the most out of
their advertising efforts? As an AdWords Coordinator, you will be responsible
for helping advertisers manage their online campaigns. You must be able to
provide creative solutions to your clients' advertising needs. We are looking
for motivated individuals who have a passion for first-rate customer service,
advertising creativity, and teamwork. Candidates should be eager to take on the
challenges of working in a fast-paced, constantly-changing organization. The
AdWords Coordinator will join a team of dedicated individuals and should be
extremely proactive, organized, and responsible.
Responsibilities:
Provide excellent customer service to Google's
advertisers.
Respond to customer service inquiries by phone, email and
live chat.
Troubleshoot existing advertising campaigns and technical
problems.
Optimize keyword lists and ads in order to maximize
advertisers' ROI.
Consistently monitor emails, customer feedback and
satisfaction.
Opportunities to work on special projects, as needed.
Requirements:
BA/BS or equivalent experience.
Detail oriented; ability to complete a
large volume of high quality work quickly.
Excellent written and verbal
communication skills.
At least 2 years customer
service/client service experience preferred.
Related experience at an Internet
company.
Strong computer applications skills.
Advertising operations experience
preferred.
Written fluency in at least one
foreign language highly preferred.
(Google)
Deep Release: Monster Worldwide Files Restated Historical
Financial Statements
Provides Update on Investigation into Historical Stock Options Grant Practices
Monster Worldwide (NASDAQ: MNST) today announced that it has filed with the
United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") an amended annual
report for the year ended December 31, 2005, an amended quarterly report for the
quarter ended March 31, 2006, and a quarterly report for the quarter ended June
30, 2006. The filing of these reports satisfies the conditions for continued
listing established by NASDAQ's listing qualification panel. The Company plans
to file with the SEC within the next two weeks, a quarterly report for the
quarter ended September 30, 2006, at which time it will be current in all of its
SEC filings.
As discussed in greater detail below, the Company has restated
its historical financial statements to reflect the results of an investigation
into its historical stock option grant practices, and has recorded a cumulative
charge of $339.6 million ($271.9 million net of tax) on stock options granted
between 1997 and March 31, 2003. The Company has also amended Part III of its
annual report to more fully reflect transactions with Andrew McKelvey, the
Company's former Chief Executive Officer, as a result of an inquiry conducted by
management and the Board of Directors following his departure.
Background
On June 12, 2006, the Company announced that a committee of
independent directors of the Board of Directors (the "Special Committee"),
assisted by independent legal counsel and outside accounting experts, was
conducting an independent investigation to review the Company's historical stock
option grant practices and related accounting. The Special Committee and its
advisors conducted an extensive review of the Company's historical stock option
grants and related accounting, including an assessment and review of the
Company's accounting policies, internal records, supporting documentation and
e-mail communications, as well as interviews with current and former employees
and current and former members of the Company's executive management and Board
of Directors.
On July 26, 2006, the Company announced that although the
Special Committee investigation had not yet reached a conclusion, the Company
cautioned shareholders and the investing public against relying on previously
published financial statements. On October 25, 2006, the Company announced that
its Audit Committee, after consultation with senior management, the Special
Committee and the Company's independent registered public accounting firm,
determined that the consolidated financial statements and related financial
information contained in its Annual Reports on Form 10-K through December 31,
2005 should no longer be relied upon.
The Special Committee has determined that the exercise price
of a substantial number of stock option grants during the periods between 1997
through March 31, 2003 differed from the fair market value of the underlying
shares on the measurement date. In most cases, the original date assigned to the
grant corresponded to the date as of which a unanimous written consent ("UWC")
was executed by the members of the Compensation Committee of the Company's Board
of Directors, but the date of that consent did not correspond to the actual date
on which the identities of the individual optionees and the number of shares
underlying each option was determined. The Company believes that the dates as of
which the UWCs were dated were earlier than the dates on which they were
actually executed. In a significant number of instances, the stock price on the
assigned date (the date as of which the UWC was executed) was lower, sometimes
substantially lower, than the price on the date the award may be deemed to have
actually been determined. The Company believes that this practice was done
intentionally, by persons formerly in positions of responsibility at the Company
for the purpose of issuing options at a higher intrinsic value than would have
otherwise been the case.
Restatement Methodology
Historically, the Company has generally accounted for stock
option grants as if the options were granted at an exercise price no less than
fair market value as indicated by the closing price of a share of the Company's
common stock trading on the NASDAQ National Market on either the "as of" date
reflected on the relevant UWC of the Compensation Committee of the Board of
Directors or the date of minutes of an actual Compensation Committee meeting
("Minutes"). A majority of stock options granted during the period under review
were granted pursuant to UWCs. The UWCs, by their terms, typically referred to
an attached Schedule A listing the specific names of the grantees and the number
of shares subject to each option. The UWCs that have been located by the
Company, however, either have no Schedule A annexed to them, or where one is
attached, it frequently does not match the Company's electronic stock option
database.
The Company has therefore concluded that neither the "as of"
dates referenced on Compensation Committee UWCs, nor the dates of Minutes can be
relied on as proper option grant measurement dates. The Company has been unable
to ascertain with any degree of certainty when, if ever, UWCs or Minutes with
full, complete and final Schedule As were reviewed and approved by the
Compensation Committee.
In light thereof, the Company has concluded that the most
appropriate and accurate source of data to determine option grant measurement
dates is the electronic record of option grant information resident in its
electronic stock option database program known as Transcentive, which went into
use in late 1998. The entry into Transcentive of the specific grantee
information as to each stock option grant constituted an acknowledgement by the
Company to the grantee of the grantee's legal entitlement to the grant and, in
the absence of authoritative information as to when grants were actually
approved by the Company provides an appropriate measurement date framework based
on entitlement. For option grants made subsequent to the implementation of
Transcentive, the Company has calculated the restated intrinsic value using a
grant measurement date based on when the option data was entered into the
database program (the "Creation Date"). For options granted prior to the
implementation of Transcentive, the new measurement date was determined by
applying the average lag time between the "as of" date and the Creation Date for
options granted subsequent to the implementation of Transcentive to the
originally utilized measurement date in order to approximate a reliable
measurement date. The average lag period between the date as of which UWCs were
executed and the date that options purportedly granted by such consents were
inputted into the Company's Transcentive system was ninety-seven days. For
grants prior to December 1998, the Company has therefore used measurement dates
equating to ninety-seven days following the date as of which the UWC relating to
such options were executed.
Given the volatility of the Company's common stock, the use of
another measurement date could have resulted in a substantially higher or lower
cumulative compensation expense. This in turn would have caused net income or
loss to be different than amounts reported in the restated consolidated
financial statements.
Findings
Based on the findings of the Special Committee, management of
the Company has concluded that the Company's consolidated financial statements
as of December 31, 2005 and 2004 and for the years ended December 31, 2005, 2004
and 2003, the selected financial information as of and for the years ended
December 31, 2002 and 2001 and the quarterly periods in 2005 and 2004 should be
restated to record additional non-cash stock based compensation expenses and
related income tax effects, resulting from the stock option review. As of
December 31, 2005, the Company had accelerated substantially all unvested
outstanding stock options in order to mitigate compensation expense that would
have been required upon the effectiveness of SFAS 123R beginning January 1,
2006. Accordingly, the 2006 periods will not be materially affected as a result
of this restatement.
The restatement of the Company's previously issued financial
statements reflects the following:
a) the recognition of non-cash stock based compensation
expense and related income tax effects related to stock options affected by the
grant dating issues; and
b) adjustments to previously recognized income tax benefits as
a result of certain stock options that were granted to certain of the Company's
executive officers with exercise prices that were less than the fair market
value of the Company's common stock on the actual date of grant and, therefore,
did not qualify as deductible performance-based compensation in accordance with
Internal Revenue Code section 162(m) ("IRC 162(m)").
The Company has notified the Internal Revenue Service of the
stock option review. Under Section 162(m), stock options that are in-the-money
at the time of grant do not qualify as performance-based compensation. The
Company is not entitled to a deduction for the compensation expense related to
the exercise of those options held by officers who are covered by IRC 162(m).
In connection with the restatement, the Company has recorded
cumulative non-cash stock based compensation of $339.6 million through December
31, 2005, offset by a cumulative income tax benefit of $67.7 million, totaling
$271.9 million on an after-tax basis.
The effects of these restatements are reflected in the
financial statements and other supplemental data, including the unaudited
quarterly data for 2005 and 2004 and selected financial data, included in the
amended Form 10-K/A. Monster Worldwide has not amended and does not intend to
amend any of its previously filed annual reports on Form 10-K for the periods
affected by the restatement or adjustments other than in this Annual Report on
Form 10-K/A or any of its previously filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for
any period prior to December 31, 2005.
The Company was unable to timely file its Quarterly Reports on
Form 10-Q for the quarters ended June 30, 2006 and September 30, 2006, primarily
due to the unavailability of reliable financial information for the 2005
periods. The Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2006 has been
filed concurrently with the Company's amended Form 10-K/A as well as the
Company's Form 10-Q/A for the quarter ended March 31, 2006. The Company expects
to file a Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2006
within the next two weeks of this filing date.
On October 6, 2006, Andrew J. McKelvey resigned from his
positions as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. The Board of
Directors of the Company named William M. Pastore, the Company's then President
and Chief Operating Officer, as its Chief Executive Officer and as a director.
On that date the Board established an Executive Committee consisting of
Salvatore Iannuzzi, chair, John Gaulding and Ronald Kramer to act for the Board
in overseeing the Company's affairs and to perform the functions of the
Chairman. Mr. McKelvey kept his seat on the Board of Directors and was named
Chairman Emeritus. On October 29, 2006, Andrew J. McKelvey resigned as a member
of the Board of Directors and as Chairman Emeritus. Mr. McKelvey and his legal
counsel have advised the Special Committee of the Board of Directors that Mr.
McKelvey had declined to be interviewed by the Special Committee on the
previously agreed date and that Mr. McKelvey would not provide assurance he
would appear at a later date.
Following Mr. McKelvey's resignation and at the direction of
management and the Board of Directors, the Company's internal audit department
and outside counsel examined certain transactions between the Company and Mr.
McKelvey or entities or individuals affiliated with him. As a result of that
examination, the Company has determined to expand the disclosure of related
party transactions by including in the Form 10-K/A the information required by
Part III that in the original filing on Form 10-K had been incorporated by
reference to the Company's Proxy Statement. The Company has recently received
reimbursement from Mr. McKelvey in the amount of $533,046, which includes
interest, for certain expenses paid by the Company during the periods 1996
through 2006. The Company continues to seek reimbursement, plus interest, on
certain other items.
On November 22, 2006, the Company's Board of Directors, with
concurrence from the Special Committee, announced that it has terminated for
cause Myron Olesnyckyj, the Company's former Senior Vice-President, General
Counsel and Secretary. Mr. Olesnyckyj was suspended from his position on
September 19, 2006. The action was a result of the Special Committee's review of
the Company's historical stock option grant practices.
The Company's Board of Directors and senior management believe
that the practices discussed related to the granting of options during the
periods 1997 through March 31, 2003 are contrary to the high ethical standards
they believe should apply to all of the Company's business practices.
Although the investigation is substantially complete, the
Special Committee continues to analyze the facts disclosed by its investigation
in order to make comprehensive recommendations to the Board regarding remedial
steps, and is in the process of determining what remedial recommendations it
will make. It expects to make those recommendations in the first quarter of
2007.
This press release should be read in conjunction with the
Annual Report on Form 10-K/A and the Quarterly Reports on Forms 10-Q/A and Form
10-Q referred to in the release.
About Monster Worldwide
Monster Worldwide, Inc. is the parent company of Monster(R),
the leading global online careers and recruitment resource. Headquartered in New
York with approximately 4,600 employees in 35 countries, Monster Worldwide
(NASDAQ: MNST) is a member of the S&P 500 Index and the NASDAQ 100. More
information about Monster Worldwide is available at www.monsterworldwide.com.
Special Note: Except for historical information contained
herein, the statements made in this release constitute forward-looking
statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking
statements involve certain risks and uncertainties, including statements
regarding the Company's strategic direction, prospects and future results.
Certain factors, including factors outside of our control, may cause actual
results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking
statements, including economic and other conditions in the markets in which we
operate, risks associated with acquisitions, competition, seasonality and the
other risks discussed in our Form 10-K and our other filings made with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, which discussions are incorporated in this
release by reference.
CONTACT: Monster Worldwide
Investor Relations:
Robert Jones, 212-351-7032
bob.jones@monsterworldwide.com
Strategic E-HR Conference
Using Technology for Comprehensive Talent & Performance Management
February 28 March 1, 2007
Coronado Island Marriott
San Diego, CA
$2,195
Agenda
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