Taleo, a firm widely known for the iron fisted leadership of its senior management tried adding a Peoplesoft executive to its team last spring. Unfortunately, management was the issue that crippled the company initially. Now a technical follower in a quickly changing market, the newly public company will find itself adding overhead costs and reducing its already cumbersome customer support processes.

That the firm made it to the IPO is a monument to the tenacity of Louis Tetu, founder and Chairman of the Board. Having just missed the window for IPOs in the dot com bust, Tetu held steadfast to his desire to drink at the public financing trough. Rather than Billions, the company acquired $90 Million.

This probably qualifies as a bright spot to the beleaguered folks at PeopleClick, BrassRing and Recruitmax. There's still some silly money in the public market and it might just be available for anther IPO or two.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, this underpriced offering from a mediocre performer taints the market.

Real value is being produced by innovators in referrals, CRM and vertical search, to name a few.

Don't forget to check out the blogs on bert.