Yahoo Sells HotJobs to Rival Monster.com

Yahoo announced Wednesday its plans to sell its online job search website, HotJobs, to one of its rivals - Monster Worldwide (monster.com) - for $225 million in cash.

As a part of the deal, Monster.com will now provide Yahoo with job listings and employment content. Monster hopes to take control of HotJobs between June and October.

Yahoo purchased HotJobs in 2002 for $439 million. The deal announced today reflects the service's diminishing value as the high unemployment rate cuts into the demand for help-wanted advertising.

The sale is a part of a new Yahoo strategy to offload services that are underperforming or otherwise do not fit well with its focus on news, entertainment and communications.