No One’s Laughing At Tickle
Mark Hendrickson
23 comments »
We’ve received word that Monster has decided to lay off the 30-35 employees that work for subsidiary Tickle, a company that it acquired for about $94M in May 2004.
Tickle includes not only a tests and quizzes site that shares the same name but also Ringo, a photo and video-sharing site, and LoveHappens, an online dating site.
As part of the decision, Ringo and LoveHappens will be completely shut down while Tickle will be absorbed into Affinity Labs, a content verticals company recently acquired by Monster.
The Tickle site will change focus once absorbed by Affinity Labs, although just how is yet to be seen. All layoffs will be complete by the end of June; employees were told of the decision at an internal meeting yesterday.
Ringo and LoveHappens are now in the DeadPool.
Hate to see anyone lose their job, wish them the best
Swimming in the DeadPool, head above the water… I am sad for every company that’s drowning here but I guess the man in this arena has lost his (last) battle.
I remember Monster acquiring Ringo a looong time ago then shutting it down and relaunching it as a photo sharing site, now its being shut down again… crazy
Yup, it was originally founded by Birch, CEO of Bebo
Is there a single line entry Deadpool section somewhere here?
If not, could you create one?
Would like to see:
Company name - Date formed - Date entered deadpool - link to full story
Monster’s decline means there is opportunity for other job site startups.
While the layoffs are unfortunate, I like the irony of an employment site laying off workers. They should post their resumes.
LinkedIn and Indeed are likely drinking Monster’s milkshake. They should repurpose the media sharing and dating sites into a cyber-VC a la Redfin to realty. Throw in a press release sidebar and they’re golden.
Nothing pisses me off more than company A buying out company B and then laying most/all of them off a few years later. It’s like, gee thanks for buying us out then ruining all of our lives.
Fuck you Monster.
wow - what really annoys me is the fact that these companies shut and their assets are not publicly auctioned off, ringo and tickle ay be a drain on moster but another site could quite easily swallow the assets.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=npQC7v73TXg
For the record, the employees who are getting laid off are happy to be out from under Monster’s woeful mismanagement. The only surprise announcement was that the severance packages would be decent. That Monster was driving Tickle into the ground was well known for some time.
When I grow up I want to see big companies ruin good things.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MZ4.....re=related
such a pity, there are so many great job board businesses monster could have bought for less than $94 M.
Monster has been sinking in the US for years - finally analysts are starting to see what other boards like CareerBuilder are doing. Mnst North American share has been rapidly deteriorating and Cb has been gobbling it up. Can’t wait to see their earnings call this wekk.. stay tuned.. are we headed for a buy out?
What bastards, I’ve spent quite a bit of money, being a paid member, over the years on lovehappens, achieve their supposed member for life status, and now they shut down.
Oh well, they always had flaws in their software, and very poor customer support. Met some fun girls on their though.