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Struggling Monster Ending the Year With a New Round of Layoffs

Dec 5, 2012

Job board giant Monster Worldwide laid off an undisclosed number of workers Tuesday, and closed its operations in Brazil and Mexico.

One report put the number at 800, while a Twitter post simply described it as “massive.”

A company representative confirmed that there were layoffs, but offered few specifics. In an emailed statement, the representative said:

Consistent with previously announced plans during the company’s Q3 earnings call to concentrate resources on business in North American and key European and Asian markets, Monster has taken a number of corporate restructuring initiatives to strengthen our core markets and increase the company’s profitability.  This includes pursuing a sale of our China HR business, closing operations in Brazil and Mexico and restructuring our global workforce to reduce our operating expenses.  Monster remains committed to providing leading talent recruitment solutions to our customers in more than 40 countries.”

Company has been reviewing “strategic alternatives”

Last month, Monster officials said during the company’s 3rd quarter financial call with investment analysts, that layoffs were likely in the future. CFO Jim Langrock said during the call that the layoffs would come in the development area, a consequence of both the completion of the company’s latest search and cloud technology projects, as well as the decision to cut costs.

A previous layoff last January involved about 400 workers.

Monster has been struggling for several quarters, announcing earlier this year that it was reviewing “strategic alternatives,” Wall Street code for selling the company or parts of it. Last month, Monster said it would seek to sell its Asian job board ChinaHR, and would shutter or sell off other operations.

Monster’s stock is currently trading at about $5.50 a share, down about 2.6 percent.