The Republic's technology sector added another Internet millionaire to its growing number yesterday when online recruitment website, Jobfinder.ie, was sold to a Norwegian company in a cash and stock deal valued at about £7.9 million (€10 million).
Mr Frank Quinn, Jobfinder founder and technology publisher, will reap £5.25 million from the deal for his 66.6 per cent stake. The remaining 33.3 per cent is divided between six directors of Small Planet - trading as Jobfinder.ie - and the Scope Communications Group.
Mr Mark Egan, managing director of the Scope Group, will net £750,000 for his 9.5 per cent stake.
Under the terms of the deal, StepStone, a leading European online recruitment company, will acquire Small Planet for £3.9 million in cash and 1,373,511 ordinary StepStone shares. Yesterday StepStone shares were trading on the London stock exchange at £2.12 sterling giving it a market capitalisation of £461 million sterling.
In March, StepStone raised £131 million sterling when it debuted on the London and Oslo stock exchanges.
Jobfinder.ie, established in mid-1996, recorded pre-tax profits of £165,000 last year on revenues of £1.1 million. The website, which employs 13 people, has more than 15,000 jobs advertised, and attracts more than one million page impressions each month. All of the Jobfinder staff will now join StepStone's Irish business.
In early 1999, the Scope Group finalised a deal to manage the online recruitment services of the world's largest IT publisher, International Data Group (IDG). The company set up to execute the business plan was Small Planet, which would take all of its material from the recruitment sections of all IDG's media organisations located in 75 countries worldwide. StepStone will fulfil this function for IDG.
