Monster Worldwide Buys
Networking Site Tickle

By JENNIFER SARANOW
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
May 24, 2004 6:35 p.m.

Monster Worldwide Inc. announced Monday it acquired Tickle Inc., an online self-testing and social-networking site, in a deal valued at about $94 million.

Monster Worldwide, the New York parent company of career site Monster.com, said it expects the acquisition will help expand its subscriber base, enhance its career-related content, fuel "viral" marketing growth and provide a new consumer revenue stream. Currently, much of Monster's revenue comes from employers.

"It's a strategic fit," said Monster Worldwide spokesman David Rosa. "It gives us consumer revenue and ample consumer base."

San Francisco-based Tickle (www.tickle.com) currently has more than 18 million members, administers about 50,000 career-assessment tests per day and the majority of its revenue comes from user subscriptions with the balance coming from online advertising. A Monster Worldwide spokesman said all 65 of Tickle's employees are expected to remain, including management.

The companies said Tickle has been profitable since the second quarter of 2002 and its trailing 12-month revenue through April 30, 2004 was about $25 million.

Under the terms of the deal, Monster will pay one million shares of common stock plus an initial cash payment of $29.5 million. In addition, it could pay more than $40 million if financial targets are met.

Shares of Monster Worldwide closed Monday at $24.38, up 18 cents, on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Monster Worldwide anticipates that the transaction will be earnings neutral in 2004 and add to earnings in 2005.

Monster Worldwide, based in New York, moved into the social networking space in October with the announcement of a professional networking service called Monster Networking. The service is still free, but Monster's Mr. Rosa said the acquisition of Tickle and its accompanying networking site is the first step toward charging for services on Monster Networking. "You will see synergies between both sites," he said.

The companies declined to detail how Tickle.com and Monster.com will be integrated, but said they expect Tickle to remain its own brand. They said they expect links between the brands, such as links to Tickle tests on Monster.com and links to Monster job postings on Tickle.

"Tickle is staying Tickle and Monster is staying Monster," says James Currier, founder and president of Tickle.

Analysts say this acquisition is characteristic of Monster Worldwide's current management team, which has often broken new ground.

"This [acquisition] is quite further a field from Monster Worldwide's core business at first glance, but a lot of the growth revenues they've come up with … have begun in that fashion and worked their way into the Monster experience," said Matthew Litfin, principal at William Blair & Co.

He cited, for example, Monster Worldwide's March acquisition of Military Advantage Inc., operator of Military.com, a Web site with more than three million members. William Blair is a market maker in the security of Monster Worldwide and may have a long or short position.

Write to Jennifer Saranow at jennifer.saranow@wsj.com