The speculation about the future of CareerBuilder has been rampant, with Ken Doctor writing last month on his blog that MediaNews might be buying some portion of it, post McClatchy-Knight-Ridder deal. Then Tribune CEO Dennis FitzSimons also publicly said last month that he would like to increase his company’s 33 percent stake (Trib and Gannett have the right to buy KR stake at market value, after deal completion), though it is unclear how the pie will be divided.
Now this NYT story that Gannett and Tribune had private discussions at the NAA Mid-Year Review in NYC with several other newspaper companies about buying portions of the site, either as equity partners or as affiliates.
Some newspaper companies are considering ties with Yahoo (which owns HotJobs), which could eventually allow the newspapers to form alliances with one another in potentially lucrative areas other than job recruitment, including news searches.
As for McClatchy, CEO Gary Pruitt said his preference would be to maintain a stake in CareerBuilder, but if not, he said he expected a “big check.”
Related:
-- KR-McClatchy: CareerBuilder.com Stake At Risk
-- Tribune Buying Back 25 Percent Of Stock For $2 Billion Plus; Selling Assets