Analysts have cast doubt upon the ability of Hotgroup to make money as three rival publishing groups started a bidding war for the online recruiter.

Trinity Mirror, DMGT (publisher of The Daily Mail) and Gannett, US owner of local newspaper group Newsquest, are all reported to be bidding for Hotgroup.

But Hotgroup’s mix of online and traditional recruitment has yet to deliver strong results.

Hotgroup has made its name as the most acquisitive company in recruitment, and burned through £39m on a spending spree beginning in May 2002 under the stewardship of chairman and chief executive Tony Reeves (pictured).

It now owns job boards Workthing, Netrecruit, Hotrecruit, PlanetRecruit, Jobsin, Gis-a-job, and JobsFinancial, and traditional recruiters ITN, Mark Education, ASA, the Buzz and Parkside.

But some in the industry believe Hotgroup has yet to fully consolidate all the companies it has bought, the most high-profile of which was Workthing, bought for £6m from The Guardian in September. Despite its price tag, Workthing lost more than £3.4m in the year ended March 2004, and visitor levels have slid since its takeover.

Although the group claims to be one of the biggest players in the market, none of its boards ranks within in the top 10 recruitment sites, according to statistics from online data provider Hitwise (see table).

Paul Jones, analyst at investment bank Numis, said: “The format has yet to be proven – we don’t know whether this hybrid of online and traditional recruitment works.

“Given Hotgroup’s disappointment in terms of performance, I don’t think shareholders will put up much of a fight.

“£75m is significantly higher than where we are. The market capitalisation is £44m. You are not going to pay an extra £30m – I think £50m is closer to the mark.”

Results published in March revealed the firm made an operating loss of £15.7m after exceptional restructuring costs.