Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNST) has fully acquired all of ChinaHR.com.  Monster acquired the remaining 55% stake for $174 million.  Monster believes that buying the rest of ChinaHR will give them a leg up on the job recruitment market in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. 

Monster paid $95 million for 45% of the company in the past.  This past year, Monster also acquired Trovix for $72.5 million. 

“This is a significant day for Monster and ChinaHR and the customers we serve,” stated Sal Iannuzzi, Chairman, President, and CEO of Monster. “Independently, each company is a respected industry leader and together we will provide employers in China with increased recruitment productivity, by
delivering more qualified candidates to help fulfill their talent needs. This acquisition will create one of the most comprehensive portfolios of products and services that bridge the gulf between employers and people in search of the best career opportunities.”

ChinaHR has 12 offices across China.  Edward Lo will become interim CEO of ChinaHR through the acquisition.  Lo is the former EVP of Monster Greater China. 

Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:MNST) acquired Tickle.com for roughly $70 million.  Tickle is a career social networking site packed full with quizzes and surveys revolving around career assessments.  Tickle.com owns Ringo, a photo/video site that was created by the founder of Bebo and sold it in 2003.  Tickle.com also owns LoveHappens, a dating website. 

Ringo and LoveHappens were managed by Affinity Labs, a network of career sites that Monster bought in January 2008.  But then Ringo and LoveHappens shut down in two months ago too.

Monster.com is laying off 30-35 employees by the end of June and is shutting down Tickle.  This is an e-mail that was sent out to Tickle.com users:

Dear Tickle User,

We will be shutting down Tickle as of June 30th 2008. You will no longer be able to access your saved test results after that date. If you would like to keep your test results, please print them out before that date. Many thanks for your understanding!

This email is for informational purposes solely and will be sent only once. There is no action required from your side, you don’t have to delete your user account or cancel your subscription; Tickle will do this for you. You will no longer be invoiced beyond June 30th 2008 if you have a paid subscription for our PhD tests. This is an electronically generated email. Please do not reply to this email, as it will not be answered. If you have any further questions, please consult our support team at support@uk.tickle.com.” Copyright 2008 Tickle, inc. All rights reserved. 799 Market St, 7th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103

Tickle.com was formerly known as Emode.com and was started in 1999 by James Currier. 

From what I’ve read about LoveHappens, users are upset that it is shutting down because it was a paid site.  TechCrunch wrote about the rumor of Tickle.com/LoveHappens/Ringo shutting down two months ago and one commenter stated:

What bastards, I’ve spent quite a bit of money, being a paid member, over the years on lovehappens, achieve their supposed member for life status, and now they shut down.

When I was in between jobs for the last few months, I found myself uploading my resume on Monster.com. Little did I know that it could potentially fall into the wrong hands: hackers, or in the context of computer networking, “crackers” and “phishers.” Researchers at Symantec Corporation plundered the user names and passwords from recruiters searching for job candidates.

“What phishers are trying to do these days is make them as realistic as possible, by adding specific information,” stated Patrick Martin, a product manager at Symantec Corp. “If they know you’ve submitted a resume to Monster, that makes it (seem) a little more legitimate.”

While this is a tremendous flaw in security, I could only imagine how much of a field day computer networking companies are having with this story. From Monster.com’s shoes, I could imagine them thinking that this is not the first time user data has been exposed^[1].

However, Monster.com has just released a security notice on their website, so all users beware of fraudulent e-mails from recruiters.  Below is a screen shot of Monster.com’s security notice:

[1] Totse.com: Bill Wall’s List of Computer Hacker Incidents