Recruiting Tech Vendors Following Taleo and Kenexa's Lead

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The announcement that Kronos is buying Unicru is an indication that companies in the recruiting-technology field are following the lead of Taleo and Kenexa (whose stock rose sharply between the fall of 2005 and the Spring/Summer of 2006) and either hoping to go public or expand by merger or acquisition, one analyst says.

Yankee Group analyst Jason Corsello says that other vendors such as Vurv and Authoria may be primed for such moves.

Corsello says that after "exhaustive due diligence" Kronos found Unicru to be the "one vendor on the market that the time was right for them. Vurv, Authoria -- they aren't at the stage for exit [IPO or merger/acquisition] yet, although they're fairly close."

Corsello thinks the Kronos marriage is a good one for multiple reasons. "They play in the same markets; both are very dominate in retail" and hospitality, he says.

! [& {' ^5 _+ `. M) ^7 JAlso, "Kronos is very synergistic to Unicru in terms of the applications standpoint; you can now incorporate absence management, time and attendance and [recruiting] so from an integrated capability functionality, it makes a lot of sense."
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0 a% o* j8 G5 o/ Z, yKronos will be able to use data it learns about employee absenteeism, attendance, and employee job-shift preferences to improve Unicru's selection processes. For example, it will be able to develop employee screening and assessment questions that can predict if an employee is likely to be a frequent unexcused-absentee.

Stuart Itkin, chief marketing officer for Kronos, touts this data-sharing as one of the most important benefits of the Kronos/Unicru acquisition for companies using Unicru products.