Online and recruitment technology sector hots up following Broadbean and OilCareers.com sale
8 April 2014
The recent sales by Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT) of multi-job posting service Broadbean and niche job site OilCareers.com is a sign that the online and recruitment technology sector is hotting up, according to industry figures.
Tue, 8 Apr 2014
The recent sales by Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT) of multi-job posting service Broadbean and niche job site OilCareers.com is a sign that the online and recruitment technology sector is hotting up, according to industry figures.
Following DMGT’s disposal of multi-job posting service Broadbean to CareerBuilder at the start of April, and its sale of niche job site OilCareers.com to US company Dice in March, Kevin Barrow a partner at law firm Osborne Clark, tells Recruiter that his company is currently working on two flotations, as well two fund raising operations for companies in the online recruitment and recruitment technology sectors.
Barrow says there is a lot of interest from private equity but also from companies wishing to float.
He attributes the growing interest to a combination of companies having a lot of cash on their balance sheets that they now wish to invest, and a view that this is “a growth area that investors want to be part of”.
Barrow says he expects some of the smaller companies to raise funds first before selling. “They will want to get a bit bigger before they put themselves up for sale to private equity or to a private investor,” he explains.
Dan McGuire, former managing director of Broadbean, who sold the company to DMGT, and now runs visual analytics company cube19, tells Recruiter: “There is a lot of money around, with very acquisitive companies coming out of a tough period. I think we will see a lot of activity.”
McGuire says that US investors are particularly interested in UK companies: “The recruitment space in the UK is exceptional, and for a US company that doesn’t have a presence in the UK, London is a great place.”
Following DMGT’s disposal of multi-job posting service Broadbean to CareerBuilder at the start of April, and its sale of niche job site OilCareers.com to US company Dice in March, Kevin Barrow a partner at law firm Osborne Clark, tells Recruiter that his company is currently working on two flotations, as well two fund raising operations for companies in the online recruitment and recruitment technology sectors.
Barrow says there is a lot of interest from private equity but also from companies wishing to float.
He attributes the growing interest to a combination of companies having a lot of cash on their balance sheets that they now wish to invest, and a view that this is “a growth area that investors want to be part of”.
Barrow says he expects some of the smaller companies to raise funds first before selling. “They will want to get a bit bigger before they put themselves up for sale to private equity or to a private investor,” he explains.
Dan McGuire, former managing director of Broadbean, who sold the company to DMGT, and now runs visual analytics company cube19, tells Recruiter: “There is a lot of money around, with very acquisitive companies coming out of a tough period. I think we will see a lot of activity.”
McGuire says that US investors are particularly interested in UK companies: “The recruitment space in the UK is exceptional, and for a US company that doesn’t have a presence in the UK, London is a great place.”
