Monster loses AOL, MSN deals to CareerBuilder
This is going to be a increasingly problematic issue as market leaders skip advertising deals unless the portals can guarantee new revenue. In this case, Monster decided to forgo its relationship with AOL and MSN when CareerBuilder came in with much sweeter deals for the two portals and, conceivably, less emphasis on ROI since they're behind already and want more traffic and some of Monster's customers according to this San Francisco Chronicle story. This is not a good time for Monster to be giving up these prominent channels and they may regret losing these deals.
In an interview last week, Monster founder Jeffrey Taylor said Monster had some interest in renewing its portal deals, but not on the terms AOL and MSN expected. As the established leader in Internet recruiting, Monster wanted pay- for-performance terms that would have required Monster to pay mainly for new customers who actually used its services. But AOL wanted a large guaranteed payment up front for touting Monster to AOL members, he said. Moreover, the two couldn't agree on how to measure performance.
...CareerBuilder agreed to pay AOL as much as $115 million over four years, more than the $100 million Monster committed to AOL during the dot-com mania of 1999. At the same time, CareerBuilder agreed to pay Microsoft as much as $150 million over five years.