Monster takes a bite

Monster and Careerbuilder have dominated the Job Board market for years. Dice has been a niche player and HotJobs has always been a smaller player. After Yahoo's acquisition, HotJobs has been considered an insignificant player. As a large buyer of all the Major Job boards for over a decade, I can personally attest to the fact that HotJobs was in no way a threat to Monster. If HotJobs was a threat at all, it was a threat to Yahoo's reputation.
The functionality and reach of HotJobs has not kept up with it's competitors. I found it interesting that Monster would buy HotJobs with unemployment hovering near 10%. Michael Dell once said that he likes to buy his competitors once customer at a time. Monster has been doing just that, they have been taking market share from HotJobs for years.
Monster would have been better served buying Indeed.com or LinkedIn, they would have added value and diversity to their portfolio. The purchase of HotJobs makes seems to make little sense in terms financially and in terms of market share unless Monster was trying to mask its bleak future earnings potential, thanks in part to Indeed and LinkedIn.