Cost-cutting drove Monster earnings beat
Monster Worldwide Inc’s better-than-expected quarterly results were due to cost-cutting, including reducing its workforce without resorting to layoffs, the job site company’s CEO said on Thursday.
Stripping out an income tax benefit, the parent of the jobs website Monster.com earned a penny per share in the third quarter, beating analysts’ expectations for break-even results. But revenue fell short of expectations and the company’s shares fell.
“We were able to squeeze a few extra dollars out in terms of cost containment and that gave us the extra penny,” Chief Executive Sal Iannuzzi told Reuters in an interview. “We’ve been watching headcount and marketing costs very closely.”
Monster reduced headcount by about 200 during the quarter by not replacing people who left in customer service, human resources and other areas, Iannuzzi said. The job reduction also partly reflects moving a technology facility from Maynard, Massachusetts, to nearby Cambridge.
The company had 5,779 employees at the end of the third quarter, according to a spokesman.
The cost efforts come amid a jobs climate where the mood is more positive, but companies are not yet willing to step up hiring or the recruitment advertising that goes with it best payday advance.
“The (U.S.) recruitment market is bouncing along the bottom, somewhat flat,” Iannuzzi said. “Europe is about the same. We don’t see any major upswing.”
Demand in India and China has stabilized, while some small markets such as South Korea are in full recovery, he said.
“I wish South Korea were half the company at this point … but it’s relatively small. (Still) it’s an indication that demand is starting to stir up in other parts of the world.”
Iannuzzi said the company was sticking to its policy of not providing earnings guidance, given the choppiness of the global economy.
“It could lead to bad decisions if we gave guidance and tried to meet it,” he said. “To judge any company in the short term on a quarter-to-quarter basis is foolish. We’re not going to get into that game.”
Monster shares were down 33 cents, or about 2 percent, at $16.25 in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Nick Zieminski; editing by John Wallace and Andre Grenon)
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