The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch today reported that Australia-based jobs website SEEK is looking to purchase “remaining shares” in the online employment business of Malaysia’s JobStreet Corporation Berhad. The deal was noted to value JobStreet at MYR 1.730 billion (US$523.5 million).
In an official statement via The Malaysian Mail Online, Andrew Bassat, Co-founder and CEO, SEEK, re-affirmed the company’s focus in Asia. He said, “In the near term, we expect revenue residing in Asia to comprise over 50 per cent of SEEK’s overall revenue, which further cements SEEK as a global leader in online employment.”
At the moment, JobStreet has operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam. The pending deal will be subjected to the approval of various regulators in city-state Singapore, and shareholders. SEEK also stated that its subsidiary Seek Asia will be the one snagging up the remaining 78 per cent of JobStreet the parent company does not already own.
In addition, SEEK will like to combine JobStreet with online recruitment network JobsDB. The motivation behind this plan is to help unlock what is said to be “large growth opportunities”. The Australian company had taken over JobsDB in December 2012.
Its plans to combine and consolidate, accompanied by aggressive efforts to invest in Asia, is proof that the regional market is attractive. After all, isn’t building a team one of the first few things founders should do?
