New York Times Sells Stake in Indeed.com
The New York Times cited a $5.9 million ($3.4 million after tax or $.02 per share) gain from the sale of a portion of their interest in Indeed.com. At first glance, it appears their investment netted rather tepid results.
However, the reality may in fact reflect the very strong growth of the popular job search site. The transcription of their first quarter conference call states that the New York Times still in fact retains a “substantial portion” of their initial minority interest in Indeed.com. Especially considering the fact that the New York Times invested $5 million only along with other investors, the $5.9 million sale appears to reflect a highly successful investment.
Indeed.com has emerged as the leader in job “aggregation,” which is the method of sites which collect job postings from around the web and consolidate them under a common search framework. The popular site gets over 50 million unique visitors every month and is by traffic, the most popular job search website.
The online recruitment industry has anticipated a major sale or transaction in the job aggregation space for some time. No major sale or transaction has happened yet, but this sale hints at a potential valuation. Although the specific numbers of the private transaction are impossible to determine, we can at least see a trend of very successful growth in valuation based on the last five years.