Meanwhile, we were watching the fundamentals. At $16/share, CareerBuilder accomplished the following things yesterday: They gained instant access to roughly $35M in operating cash (we're jealous) More importantly, their remaining shares of stock have a market value of almost $250M (market cap) With the equivalent of nearly $300M in unfettered spending capability, CareerBuilder is set to follow TMP's acquisition path. Everyone in the industry will begin to calibrate their net worth based on the IPO stats. With 250,000 unique visitors in March, a valuation based on traffic would make CareerPath worth double, Career Mosaic and Headhunter.net worth quadruple and Monster worth 9 times the value of CareerBuilder.

That's just inside the pure web segment of the industry. Imagine the corporate offices at CDI. With a market cap of only double, management must be really kicking themselves for not investing more heavily in their (and MRI's) website. Korn Ferry, trading at a significant premium, has only a slightly higher value. Heidrick and Struggles stock price is languishing at its opening price with a market cap roughly equal to CareerBuilder. TMP, off by more than 33% from its highs, has a market cap of over $2B (which explains their acquisition prowess.)

Right now, the non-Recruiting Internet game is an acquisition play. Companies go public to fund buying sprees that shore up the long term value to shareholders. Watching CareerBuilder's next steps will be an interesting spectator sport.

Note: 1999 was a heady time. With the upcoming Google  and Taleo IPOs, a few of us are waxing nostalgic. The Reuter's critiques remain valid today...the technology is not quite there.

John Sumser

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