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Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

StepStone shuns 41million Adecco buy-out - 08/2001

Could this be pride getting in the way or was the price not right?

Pan-European online recruitment site StepStone has turned down Adecco as a buyer, despite announcing heavy losses and job cuts.

The company turned down an offer of 620m kronas (41m)from the Swiss recruitment company Adecco, according to the Norwegian financial newspaper Finansavisen. The company announced losses of 20.2m earlier last week as well as 350 lay-offs out of its thousand-strong workforce.

The Norwegian start-up has seen its share price fall more than 95 percent since its IPO in March last year. The company also lost its founder Giles Clark earlier last month.

Bob Gregory, director of investor relations for StepStone, spoke to silicon.com recently about the companyís poor fortune: ìThe current downturn has had an effect on recruitment which has slowed down our revenues.î

StepStoneís major investor is Norwegian investment company Orkla and Investor. StepStone declined to comment on why it turned down the offer. Adecco was unavailable to speak to silicon.com.

www.silicon.com
www.stepstone.com