JobStreet, Auld Lang Syne

I have a lot of mixed feelings today. I've just learnt that my old company, JobStreet.com, of which I was a close part for more than eight years of my working life, from 2001 until retirement in 2009, will never be quite the same again.

Oh heck, it may even no longer exist. It was reported by the Wall Street Journal's online edition that Seek Australia intends to buy up the remaining 78 percent of JobStreet.com shares that it does not already own. The same story has since broken out on the local online news websites.

I contacted my sharebroker and he confirmed that there was indeed a request from the company to suspend trading of its shares on Bursa Malaysia with effect from nine o'clock this morning.

I still have friends and ex-colleagues working at JobStreet.com and I am sure that they are all equally as shocked as I am. JobStreet.com has been so much a family to all of us, having gone through both the bad times and the good times together.

But back to this takeover exercise. According to Bursa Malaysia, there are altogether 635,124,860 JOBST shares at the present time. The 78 percent of JOBST shares that Seek Australia is buying is equivalent to 494,098,288 shares out there in the open market. The question is whether the RM1.73 billion that Seek is offering for JOBST shares will include the 22 percent that they already own. If yes, then the offer price should be worth about RM2.70 for each JOBST share. If no, the offer price becomes RM3.50 per share. Right now, trading in JOBST has been suspended at RM2.68. That's interesting....

Note: The Star reports it here and apparently, the RM1.73 billion will include Seek paying themselves back for the 22 percent that they already hold.

I remember way back in the mid-2000s when JobStreet.com was first listed on the Bursa Malaysia, the company's chief executive officer and founder, Mark Chang, used to tell me - and others - that his ultimate dream was to see the shares of the company touch RM5 per share eventually. At that time, the shares were traded at around RM1.20 only but I believed him and kept faith with him.

In 2007, the company announced a two-for-one bonus issue and a consolidation of two shares into one. And then in September last year, the company made a share split which effectively doubled the number of shares and halved the share price. Because of the share split, the target for Chang adjusted to RM2.50 per share instead of RM5. Thus, for the JOBST shares to exceed this target and touch a high of RM2.78 yesterday means that, yes, he did achieve his life-long goal.