Define "irony": Monster.com to slash 800 jobs.....

[marmar]

from Bloomberg:


Monster to Cut 800 Jobs; 2nd-Quarter Profit Drops (Update3)
By Tim Mullaney

July 30 (Bloomberg) -- Monster Worldwide Inc., the world's largest network of online job-hunting sites, said it will cut 800 jobs, or 15 percent of its staff, after profit fell. The shares rose on the plan to reduce costs.

Second-quarter net income slid 28 percent to $28.6 million, or 21 cents a share, from $39.6 million, or 30 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. Sales rose 20 percent to $331.1 million, missing the $337 million average estimate of 15 analysts.

Monster expects the job cuts to save as much as $170 million a year. Sales in North American job listings, the company's largest business, rose 7 percent, missing the 11 percent forecast of Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney. Monster said operating profit will increase to 25 percent of sales by late 2008 from 19 percent in the second quarter.

``We're prepared to invest half of whatever we save back in the company,'' Chief Executive Officer Sal Iannuzzi, who took over in April, said an interview.

Results included 10 cents a share in severance and costs from a probe of backdated stock options that led the company to restate results. Excluding that, profit was 32 cents, missing the 34-cent average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Thomson Financial projected 32 cents.

2007 Forecast

Monster cut its 2007 revenue forecast to $1.34 billion to $1.37 billion, from $1.36 billion to $1.4 billion previously. Analysts projected $1.37 billion, according to the average of 19 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a.2oOArdhU4g&refer=news