Simply Hired — a job search engine with 30 million monthly users that is active in 24 countries and 12 languages — is shutting down on June 26, with one report claiming that at least some of the company is getting acquired.
We heard of the shutdown initially from one of Simply Hired’s partners, who received an email Friday from the company noting that it is terminating a partnership agreement on June 26 because it is suspending its partnership program. Simply Hired also attached to the note a set of FAQs, which also added that “the business of Simply Hired would cease operations as of June 26.” We’ve copied the text of both of these notes at the bottom of this post.
Separately, a short post on the EreMedia recruitment blog notes that “pieces of the company/technology will be acquired,” without giving further details. It added that employees were also informed of this last week and face an “uncertain future.”
We have reached out to Simply Hired’s press office, to its CEO James Beriker and to its partnership support team. The only response we have had so far has been from the partners’ help desk. “This desk is unable to comment. Please watch for a press release,” support staff replied in an email.
Simply Hired, founded in 2004 and based in Sunnyvale, had raised just over $34 million in funding from investors that include Dave McClure, Foundation Capital, Guy Kawasaki, Fox, IDG Ventures and Ronald Conway.
Coincidentally, Simply Hired was the subject of another acquisition rumor years ago: It was allegedly in talks to be acquired by Google back in 2007 — a rumor that no doubt was fuelled by the idea of the search giant keen to beef up its vertical search capabilities, specifically in the job sector, and the fact that its president teased that there was “lots of interest in us” when asked about the rumors. It’s not clear who would be snapping up a recruitment site right now for tech or anything else, although LinkedIn has been active in that area, both with its own business and buying smaller operations like Connectifier.
Simply Hired competes against the likes of Monster.com, Indeed (which was itself acquired by Recruit in Japan), LinkedIn, Glassdoor and many others.
Simply Hired is not one of the new kids on the block pushing the boundaries of which algorithms a service might use to source candidates and jobs and match them up in more clever ways, but what it may not have in terms of newer search algorithms, it makes up for in size.
As one of the bigger recruiting companies, the company gets about 30 million visitors each month and claims to search some 6 million jobs across 700,000 employers. In comparison, Monster claimed in Q1 it had some 50,000 employers in its database, and does not disclose MAUs. Indeed.com says is has more than 180 million monthly active visitors.
In other words, Simply Hired is not the biggest, but it does have significant scale and brand recognition. Although it will be losing some of its reach by terminating those partnerships, there are likely to be other direct assets that remain intact. That is one reason why at least a part-acquisition might make sense, rather than a full-out shutdown due to lack of funds.
Hopefully, that will mean an opportunity, too, for the people whose jobs are being affected. We’ll keep looking out for more information about what is happening with Simply Hired (ping me if you know). We will update this post as we learn more.
Texts of the notes to partners follow below.
Dear XXXX,
Your company and Simply Hired are currently parties to the Simply Hired Partner Terms of Service (“Agreement”), under which Simply Hired is providing job content and related services to your company.
Simply Hired hereby notifies your company that it is terminating the Agreement effective in 30 days, on June 26th, 2016. We are terminating the Agreement because we are suspending our Partnership Program for all publishers.
There will be no interruption in services between now and June 26th. All payments will be processed and paid under the terms of the Agreement.
Please refer to the FAQ below for additional details. Our partnership team can assist with any needs you may have with respect to this transition process.
Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any other questions.
Best regards,
The Simply Hired Partner Team
support@simply-partner.com
CONFIDENTIAL: SIMPLY HIRED PARTNER FAQ
Overview
The business of Simply Hired will cease operations as of June 26, 2016. Accordingly, we will be winding down our Partnership Program and all related platform services prior to this date.
Timing
We will be winding down all partner services by June 26th, 2016 (“Service Discontinuation Date”). This includes hosted Job Sites, Job Widgets, API and data feed accounts. Please make arrangements to transition all Simply Hired services prior to this date at which point all services will no longer be available. This includes all functionality hosted Job Site URLs, Widgets, API, Account and Reporting services will be deactivated.
Job Listing Sales (For Hosted Job Site Partners Only)
The following pertains to our optional Job Listing Sales features offered with our hosted Job Sites only. All Job Sales capabilities will be available through the Service Discontinuation Date, however, it is important to understand how best to handle transitioning these capabilities with respect to active advertisers.
Active Job Listings will run through the Service Discontinuation Date unless you advise us to disable this specific functionality, or all your Job Site functionality, before that time. Typically these are sold on a 30-day basis. Any advertiser with partially delivered listings (i.e. less than 30 days or applicable duration sold) will be issued a refund. Please note that Simply Post upsells will run until the Service Discontinuation Date (on www.SimplyHired.com) irrespective of the status of your Job Site, but will be subject to automatic proration and refunding per the policy below.
If we disable this functionality for you, or when you turn off your JobSite entirely, all active job posting products will be canceled in accordance with our Terms and Conditions.
The refund shall be calculated as the total number of days remaining in the Job Listing divided by thirty (30) and multiplied by the fee paid for the Job Listing and shall be paid to the advertiser within thirty (30) days of cancellation via the credit card account used for purchase. and your advertisers will be unable to access their account settings and dashboard.
Should you wish to transition your advertisers to a new platform, our Partner Support Team can assist you with downloading your data. Please keep in mind that your advertisers will not be able to access your account settings once this functionality is disabled. As a reminder, all communication regarding the discontinuation or modifications of these services to your customers is your responsibility. We will not communicate directly with your customers with respect to any information contained here.
Please let our Partner Operations Team know of your plans as soon as possible, and ideally no later than Tuesday, May 31, 2016, by sending us an email to support@simply-partner.com.
Your final partner payment will reflect these adjustments.
Reporting Data
If you wish to download any reporting or account information prior to service disconnection, please do so no later than the Service Discontinuation Date.
Final Payments & Tax Forms
We anticipate making all final payments within 30 days of the Service Discontinuation Date or June 26, 2016. This includes all unpaid earnings generated up to the Service Discontinuation Date. Your current payment method (i.e. check, wire or PayPal) will be used.
All year-end tax reporting forms will be provided on a timely basis.
Other Questions/ Assistance
Should you require any additional assistance up until the Service Discontinuation Date please send an email outlining your question or request to support@simply-partner.com prior to the Service Discontinuation Date we will respond as promptly as possible. After the Service Discontinuation Date please contact partner-support@dswinddown.com.
Finally, we’d like to sincerely thank you for your partnership and support during the last 10+ years. We will miss working with all of you.
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