Gannett paid $135 million cash to struggling Tribune Co. for an additional 10% stake in the giant jobs website -- giving GCI a controlling interest, today's announcement says. The new ownership breakdown:- Gannett: 50.8%
- Tribune: 30.8%
- McClatchy: 14.4%
- Microsoft: 4%
A reader here asks: "Anyone have any thoughts on the increased share in CareerBuilder that Gannett just purchased? All it means for us Classified Recruitment folks is more business we can't go after because CareerBuilder 'has' them. Oh, but yes: We're still supposed to make goal. Ummm . . . math anyone?"
Fun facts in public documents!
Gannett's press release doesn't say how the company paid Tribune; it only discloses the $135 million buyout price. I suspected this wasn't an all-stock deal: After all, Tribune CEO Sam Zell has all the newspaper shares he needs. To find the answer, I went to GCI's mandatory 8-K notice, filed today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. (And, yes: It was a cash deal.)
An opportunity for more revenue in an area where print revenue is hardest hit: classifieds. Keeping the competition at bay (Trib and McClatch) sounds pretty wise.
ReplyDeleteDoes CareerBuilder sell or share information collected online to schools, anyone know?
ReplyDelete@3:07 - what's important to understand here is that while we lose print revenue to online in Classifieds to sites including CareerBuilder, the companies that we are forbidden to go after by CareerBuilder have the best opportunity for revenue. So while we are forced sit on our hands, CB either gets them (and keeps the revenue for CB) or is unsuccessful in securing the revenue or even making the effort. But we still can't touch them.
ReplyDeleteMust really make the people in recruitment feel great . . . especially with the crap newspaper deals that CB can offer prospective clients. . .also, isn't there a move to have some sort of telemarketing type person(s) sell CB "for the local papers" out of Chicago? I think if you work in classified, I would not buy a new house or make any major investment at this time . . . how many classified types were dumped with the last downsizing???
ReplyDeleteAnyone else still trying to get past GCI shitcanning 1,0000 people... and then buying controlling interest in the giant jobs website CareerBuilder?
ReplyDeleteCareerBreaker.com? That would make sense. But this...
And here I always thought Careerbuilder was surprisingly nimble an innovative for a Gannett property; never realized we were a minority interest.
ReplyDeleteWe'll take care of that! Chimpanzees and Super Bowl ads? Well I never!
Well at least now I know what I was sacrificed for when I got canned two weeks ago. Funny, I have found CB to be the least desirable site when looking for potential jobs and now even more so.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteDo you know why Cape Publishing, Inc. and Gannett Satellite were the only two branches of Gannett listed in the CareerBuilder deal?
Thanks
I wondered about those two Gannett subsidiaries, too. I assume this is about minimizing taxes. Anyone else have an idea?
ReplyDeleteDoes it mean that just those two entities paid for the extra shares in CareerBuilder?
ReplyDeleteI'm embarrassed to say, but I never could make CareerBuilder.com work for me. But then, I always liked the Gannett jobs memo that used to come out every week with the NewsWatch. Now that I'm looking for work, I find the CB even more daunting. I'd like to try something new but unless you know the name of the job, you're out of luck in its search forms.
ReplyDeleteI think it is tacky that a week or two after an avalanche of pink slips that Gannett pays cash for a product that cuts local papers' classified throats.
8:33 AM or anyone else---
ReplyDeleteDid you start getting "We found a match" emails from schools and colleges after going to CareerBuilder?
Have to give Career Builder credit for promptly removing me from their list and any of the partner lists after I complained.
Hey 7:51, my feelings exactly, isn't it nice to know that with the money they saved by getting rid of all of us, they were able to make the purchase . . .
ReplyDeleteI just hope that those that are left are wising up and seriously looking at moving on . . . it ain't gonna get any better soon . . .
GCI bought into CareerBuilder in 2002, paying $98M for a third. This news shows the owners value it at roughly $1.4B, down a bit from the $1.5B mark it had when they squared up after the McClatchy-KR merger in 2006. It's good to see GCI investing its rich cash flow to grow a national or global e-business. Let's hope it acts like a doting parent with a kid in college -- sends $ often, supportive, hands-off.
ReplyDeleteI still want to know why just two subsidiaries---Cape Publishing, Inc. and Gannett Satellite---are listed on the deal.
ReplyDeleteI am still at GCI. I sympathize with the layed off employees (I could be next on a future list). Having said all of above. I thought this was the first wise investment Gannett has made in awhile. Career Builder is a profitable online company for a newspaper company. It says alot about Tribune that to pay off it's enormous debt. It continues to sell off it's best assets. Want to feel good if you still work at Gannett? Be thankful you don't work for Tribune. By the time it gets done selling of it's assets to pay off it's debt. their will be no company left.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you get the percentage of ownership figures from? Is it public information to find out who owns stock or some other type of share in McClatchy and Gannett?
ReplyDeleteSpecifically, I'd like to know if Hellman & Friedman, Texas Pacific Group (aka TPG-Axon or TPG Capital), or Cobalt Holding have any stake in CareerBuilder, McClatchy or Gannett.