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"LinkedIn is mulling over the purchase of job site giant Monster, according to a report.\nMonster, which retained Stone Key Partners and Bank of America in March to pursue the sale of the company, has since received \"expressions of interest\" from LinkedIn and tech-focused buyout firm Silver Lake, reports Reuters, which cites unnamed sources.\nA rep from Monster declined to comment on the report. LinkedIn reps could not be reached at press time.\nThe report prompted a 19% jump in Monster stock Friday afternoon. At press time, the stock was up about 16%. Monster, owner of HotJobs, has seen its business suffer in recent years as LinkedIn, among others, become bigger players in the space. Monster's revenues for 2011 were $250 million, down $250 million from the year before. The company has attempted to reverse the decline with BeKnown, a Facebook-based professional network that it launched last June. BeKnown is not the only such network on Facebook, though. BranchOut hit 25 million users in April.\nLinkedIn, meanwhile, has been on a buying spree, acquiring both SlideShare and Rapportive within the past few months.\nImage courtesy of Flickr, TheSeafarer"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/05/11/linkedin-monster/>