Yahoo! to swoop on hotjobs.com

NEWS Hotjobs.com has found itself at the centre of a takeover battle following Yahoo!'s announcement yesterday that it wants to buy the online recruitment site. Hotjobs is already on course to merge with owner of rival monster.com, TMP Worldwide. However, hotjob's board has now given the go-ahead for negotiations for a possible merger deal with Yahoo! Yesterday Yahoo! submitted a rival bid totaling $436m in cash and stock. TMP made its original bid back in June. Its offer is a share deal worth less at about $366m. The move would enable Yahoo to diversify and reduce its dependence on advertising revenues. In after hours trading, hotjobs shares leapt 16.7 per cent to $7.55 while Yahoo! dipped into the red by 3.9 per cent to $18.39.