If you’ve been on the internet for a long time, you likely remember many of the titans that made it what it is today.
Some of the lucky ones — Amazon, Google, and Yahoo — are still around, having pivoted successfully over the years as times changed, keeping their customers interested in what they had to offer.
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For Amazon, that meant going beyond being just a bookseller, pioneering ultra-fast, subscription-based delivery, and expanding into the streaming universe.
Google became so much more than just that search engine with the goofy font, creating everything from a worksuite used today by millions to smart devices that are in just about everyone’s homes.
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While Yahoo isn’t thought of as the pioneer it once was thanks to standing in Google’s shadow, it still attracts 300 million users a month and boosts other news websites’ reach in a major way by featuring them on its homepage.
A lot of other businesses founded on the internet in the ’90s have either folded or been forgotten, causing people to exclaim, “Wow, that still exists?” when brought up in everyday conversation.
You’re about to say that right now, in fact, because one of those businesses has just poked its head up to announce that it’s declaring bankruptcy.
Monster.com and CareerBuilder are calling it quits.
Image source: Adrian Brown/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Pioneering careers website calls it quits
Speaking of the ’90s, anyone reading this who has been around for that long likely remembers job website Monster.com.
It was once the premier way for people to find work, having been founded in 1994 as The Monster Board. Since that time, it’s remained in business for more than 30 years.
But that comes to an end today, as both it and CareerBuilder, which merged in 2024 to form one company, have declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware bankruptcy court.
Per papers filed, CareerBuilder + Monster has $50 million to $100 million of assets, and $100 million to $500 million of debts. The company is currently owned by private equity firm Apollo Global Management and Dutch staffing company Randstad.
The Chicago-based company also said it will sell its job board operation to JobGet, an app specifically designed for gig workers.
As for its software services business for federal and state governments, that gets sold to Canadian software company Valsoft, while its miliray.com and fastweb.com websites will be sold to Canadian media company Valnet.
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Even when the merger happened last year, cutting remarks were made that foreshadowed the future of the business.
“The two brands are long past their prime,” RecTech Media Managing Director Chris Russell said at the time. “Both sites are just hanging on to their dwindling brand awareness, which gets smaller by the day.”
Crushed by the competition
Addressing the reason for the bankruptcy, Chief Executive Jeff Furman named the “challenging and uncertain macroeconomic environment” and said that the bankruptcy, along with selling its assets, was the best way to maximize value.
While CareerBuilder and Monster flourished in their heyday, they were slowly eclipsed by competition from newer players such as Indeed, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor.
Indeed was founded in 2004 and has continued to grow at a rapid pace. It is now used in over 60 countries and has 610 million Job Seeker Profiles globally, per Indeed data.
Founded in 2002, LinkedIn has also grown into a behemoth for job seekers. As of 2024, the website had more than one billion users across 200 countries.
While Glassdoor didn’t come along until 2007, it also found its footing by allowing users to review businesses they had worked for, becoming a credible outlet for potential jobseekers to investigate a company before accepting an offer.
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