Jobing has picked-up its ninth acquisition in four years as it continues its march from a small, Phoenix job board to a player on the national jobs scene. The deal for WorkMetro, a San Jose, Calif. based job board was announced Monday.
WorkMetro had a presence in 22 markets across the U.S. mostly in the South and Northeast. Although the company has been struggling for some time, it has promotional arrangements with cable operators in many of its markets. Both the local emphasis – each WorkMetro market has a separate web address – and the TV partnerships fit with Jobing’s own strategy. Plus, it gives Jobing a footprint in the northeast where it previously had only a limited presence.
Under the leadership of CEO Aaron Matos, a former recruiter and HR director, Jobing has gone from a publishing company division with sales of under $3 million to a private, equity-funded company with revenues of more than $22 million. Acquisitions, including WorkMetro, and organic growth should push Jobing’s revenues well over the $30 million figure in 2008. Its traffic ranks it among the top 25 career sites in the U.S.
Besides its focus on local market jobs, Jobing.com invests heavily into developing locally focused community content. Its sites have blogs written by local recruiting professionals and hiring managers and Jobing promotes the use of video better than any other jobs site in the U.S. The company maintains its own video production facilities in Phoenix and offers employer branding videos free as part of a subscription package.
The WorkMetro relationships with local cable operators and TV stations will help Jobing expand the reach of the videos, which now mostly appear only on the job site itself.
WorkMetro, founded in 2003, initially grew rapidly fueled by partnerships with the local operators who provided promotion in exchange for a revenue share. The company staffed offices in each of its markets, just as Jobing does. Unlike Jobing, however, WorkMetro failed to gain traction and for the last year has been consolidating operations and reducing staff. WorkMetro had fewer than 20 employees when it was sold, compared to Jobing which has about 300.