Classified Ad Ventures Acquires Hippo Jobs
May 3, 2009 by Geoff Jennings · Comments Off
Simon Baker, the CEO of Classified Ad Ventures, has acquired the youth job board Hippo. Hippo appointed an administrator on March 24th.
This is a great result for James Masini, General Manager and founder of Hippo Jobs, as it gives him an economic lifeline and allows him a continued involvement in the company.
Simon has a good track record as a leader at the helm of a fledgling classified businesses. He resuscitated a drowning realestate.com.au in 2001 when they were down to their last few dollars. There, Simon grew revenues from $4m to $155m in FY 2008.
Simon Baker said, “We believe that niche jobs sites are a growing opportunity. Managers have less time than ever to troll through the hundreds of irrelevant CVs they often receive from the general jobs sites. Our investment in ArtsHub shows that by having a targeted audience, we are able to deliver a small number of quality candidates that meet the advertisers’ requirements.”
“Hippo has successfully matched the youth of Australia with employers of choice for the past 2 years. As part of the Classified Ad Ventures, advertisers and candidates using Hippo Jobs will benefit from a combined 40 years of online classified experience and receive better results.”
Hippo Jobs will report to Chris Vulovic, the head of Classified Ad Ventures’ Innovation team.
Job For Simon
August 24, 2008 by Geoff Jennings · 2 Comments
Let’s find a job for Simon. Have you met him yet? Simon Baker. Ex-CEO and MD at realestate.com.au (also known as the REA Group)? Ahhhh. Now the coin’s dropped. I think we both heard it make a clunk sound at the bottom of your skull.
So, here’s the thing. A few weeks ago, the folks at REA decide that they could not agree to differ with Simon. He’s taken to a hotel room, and told the grim news that his services would no longer be required. Bummer. No chance to say goodbye to collegues. No gold bloody pen – or watch. Betcha he didn’t even get one of those snazzy red polo tees.
Bummer.
I don’t need to go into how this was an appalling way to treat an employee of seven and a half years (and third largest shareholder). I wanna look to the future. What’s next for a man of Simon’s experience and achievement?
Perhaps his services are required at a couple of of under-achieving job boards – CareerOne and MyCareer. Perhaps this Midas could deliver them their gold – superiority over Seek.
