Monster Worldwide Inc. (
MWW)
Q4 2009 Earnings Call Transcript
February 3, 2010 5:00 p.m. ET
Executives
Robert Jones – Vice President of Investor Relations
Salvatore Iannuzzi – Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Timothy T. Yates – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Steve Cooker – Senior Vice President and General Manager of Government Solutions
Darko Dejanovic – Global Chief Information Officer and Head of Product
Ted Gilvar – Chief Marketing Officer
James M. Langrock – Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Accounting Officer
Michael C. Miller – Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Art O’Donnell – Executive Vice President, Global Customer Service
Lise Poulos – Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer
Mark Stoever – Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategic Alliances
Analysts
Mark Mahaney - Citigroup Smith Barney
Monica DiCenso - J.P. Morgan
Timothy McHugh - William Blair
James Mitchell - Goldman Sachs
Tobey Sommer - SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
Mark Marcon - Robert W. Baird
Presentation
Operator
Good afternoon. My name is Christian and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Monster Worldwide Fourth Quarter and the Full Year Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key. Thank you. I will now turn the call to our host, Mr. Bob Jones, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.
Robert Jones
Thank you. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us on Monster Worldwide’s fourth quarter and full year 2009 conference call. In addition to announcing our financial results for the period, in a separate news release, we announced a definitive agreement to acquire the asses of Yahoo! HotJobs and entered we entered into a traffic agreement with Yahoo! We will have formal remarks from Sal Iannuzzi, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer and Tim Yates, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. In addition to Sal and Tim, several members of our executive management team are available to answer your questions during the Q&A part of the call. They are Darko Dejanovic , CIO and head of product; Ted Gilvar, Chief Marketing Officer; James Langrock, Chief Accounting Officer, Michael Miller, General Counsel; Art O’Donnell, Global Customer Service; Lise Poulos, Chief Administrative Officer; and Mark Stoever, corporate development and strategic alliances. Steve Cooker, the head of U.S. sales is also with us today.
Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that except for historical information, the statements made during this conference call constitute forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the company’s strategic direction, prospects and future results.
Certain factors, including factors outside of our control, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including economic and other conditions in the markets in which we operate, risk associated with acquisitions and dispositions, competition and any other risks discussed in our Form 10-K and other filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
With that, I’d turn call over to Sal for his comments.
Salvatore Iannuzzi
Thank you, Bob. Good afternoon and welcome to our fourth quarter and year end 2009 conference call. I will cover the following topics on my remarks this afternoon, a quick review of Monster’s growth strategy, our current business trends, a summary review of fourth quarter performance, today’s announcement of our entry into definitive agreement with Yahoo! to acquire HotJobs and the traffic agreements with Yahoo! and the areas of focus as we enter 2010.
Tim will then provide financial details on the fourth quarter of 2009 and further perspective on the Yahoo! announcement as well as context for the first quarter and full year 2010. I will then make brief summary remarks and then we’ll take your questions.
We are pleased to see many of you -- we were pleased to see many of your at our investor conference in New York City three months ago. At that time, we updated you on the progress we’ve made in transforming Monster and demonstrated our innovative precision search technology powered by Trovix, which we now branded 6Sense.
This new search engine powers a suite of products that delivers precise, relevant results that match seekers with job opportunity faster and better than ever before. This revolutionary product exemplifies the innovative approach we’ve taken in reviewing every aspect of our business. It is a culmination of our initiatives to position the company for long-term sustainable growth.
Let me take a few minutes to quickly summarize these initiatives. We have largely rebuilt our infrastructure, creating a solid platform for future growth. We overhauled seeker experience and introduced new career management resources and tools for millions of job seekers that visit Monster around the globe.
We’ve expanded audience for our employer’s job postings through our innovative media products, including career ad network products. We’ve significantly enhanced our networking capability through the integration of our Monster affinity communities. We’ve expanded our reach to key alliances and partnerships with offline and online media.
