Monster Worldwide has just come out with their first quarter report and as expected it total revenue declined 31% to $254 million, compared with $366 million in the comparable quarter of 2008.Timothy Yates, Monster’s CFO, during the quarter call, addressed operating expenses, including layoffs both here and in China since acquiring ChinaHR.com last year. “Excluding ChinaHR, we ended the first quarter with almost 400 fewer associates compared with the fourth quarter of 2008,” Yates said. “We also reduced headcount in China by nearly 300 full time associates and a significant number of temporary employees during the first quarter. As a result, total headcount declined 10 percent.”
Monster are also following suit with many other companies and are planning for much more rationalisation:
Sal Iannuzzi, chairman, commented that . “This quarter we’ve made decisions which impact the compensation of all our employees. Merit increases, 401K contributions, and cash incentive compensation have been suspended this year. Any incentive compensation for 2009 will only be paid in the form of four year vesting equity…these actions ensure that our employees will share in our growth as the economy recovers.”
He also talked about Trovix acquisition. “Last year we acquired Trovix to further ramp up our internal technology to provide seekers with more targeted searches. All indications are that Trovix will provide dramatic improvement in results. We are confident we will execute a full implementation by the end of the year with a customer beta roll-out in May.”
To get more financial detail on the accounts go here.
