Monster announced the cash deal Wednesday, February 3. Besides acquiring the HotJobs business, Monster said it and Yahoo entered into a three-year traffic pact in which Monster will become Yahoo's provider of career and job content on the Yahoo home page in the U.S. and Canada.

The news ends months of speculation about the future of HotJobs and strengthens Monster’s hand at a time when job boards have been fending off new forms of competition including recruitment techniques that tap social networking.

"HotJobs with its significant customer base plus the traffic agreement are an ideal complement to Monster's innovative recruitment solutions and global reach," Sal Iannuzzi, CEO of Monster Worldwide, said in a statement.

The traffic deal is to take effect upon the closing of the acquisition. In addition, the traffic agreement gives Monster an exclusive right for a period after the closing of the acquisition to negotiate similar traffic agreements with Yahoo properties on a global basis, subject to certain limitations.

Monster said it expects the transaction to close in the third quarter, subject to regulatory review.
 
Last year, Internet giant Yahoo reviewed its product portfolio under new chief executive Carol Bartz. HotJobs has been rumored to be for sale for some time.

The site is one of the biggest Internet job boards, along with Monster and CareerBuilder.com. All three have wrestled with lower hiring needs during the recession, which means fewer dollars spent by companies on recruitment advertising. Job boards also face growing competition in the form of alternative recruiting tactics. These include use of social networking sites such as LinkedIn and search engine marketing, which involves bidding to place job ads next to search results on sites such as Google.

A report last year from consulting firm CareerXroads estimated that job boards are the source for about 12 percent of external hires. About six in 10 open positions at large corporations are filled with external hires, according to the study.

In its press release announcing the HotJobs acquisition and traffic agreement, Monster said it expects a number of benefits for job seekers and employers. Monster said these include an anticipated increase in job matches and search efficiencies, an expected expansion of Monster’s job-seeker pool for employers and an expected increase in job postings across industries for job seekers.

—Ed Frauenheim