Recruit is a human resourcescompany headquartered in Japan. It was founded as "Daigaku Shimbun Koukokusha" in 1960 as an advertisement company that specialized in university newspapers. It owns the job search engineIndeed. It had sales of over $17 billion in 2016, with overseas sales contributing 40% of total revenue.
History
1960 - The company was founded by Hiromasa Ezoe as an advertising agent specialised in university newspapers called "Daigaku Shimbun Koukokusha"
1963/4 - The company changed its name from "Daigaku Shimbun Koukokusha" to "Japan Recruitment Centre Holdings"
1963/8 - The company changed its name to "Japan Recruit Centre Holdings"
1984 - The company changed its name to "Recruit Holdings"
1988 - "The Recruit Scandal": the company has lost its trust and was forced to be put in a difficult situation by the scandal and by the non-performing assets in the group company which were caused by the collapse of Japan's bubble economy.
1992 - The company became a part of "Daiei Holdings" by transferring the stock holdings to Isao Nakauchi who was the founder of Daiei group.
2006 - "First finance" which was one of the group company started its dissolution process.
2006/1 - 11 - The company acquired the ownership of "Sanyo Human Network", "Homepro" and "Yukoyuko".
2007/2 - The company acquired the ownership of "Job Direct".
2007/12 - The company acquired the ownership of "Staff Service Holdings"
2009/3 - The order was made by the Tokyo District Court that the payment of Worker's compensation to be made to the company's former employee for his death from overworking.
2012/10 - The company acquired US based Indeed. First finance changed its name to " Recruit Holdings Co.,Ltd." and changed its corporate logo.
2015 - Recruit Holdings acquired Treatwell for €180 million.
2015 - Recruit Holdings acquired Quandoo for USD$219 million.
2016 - Recruit Holdings acquired USG People for €1.42 billion.
2018/3 - Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd. acquires the Canadian job search website Workopolis.
2018/5 - Recruit Holdings acquired Glassdoor for US$1.2 billion in cash.
Overview
The company based its core business around job matchmaking particularly between ready-to-graduate students and corporations in the '60s, further expanding into matchmaking of job change seekers, as well as real estate and rental information in the 1970s. By the end of the 1980s, the company was also engaged in the publication of classified ad magazines covering fields such as part-time job listings, automobile and overseas travel. In 1988, the company was reported to be engaged in the Recruit scandal, which led to the retirement of founder Hiromasa Ezoe from the company and his share being sold to Daiei, from which it became independent in 2000. After becoming a part of Daiei group, Daiei agreed to keep its stance as a "silent stakeholder" but didn't assume Recruit's debt. In this event a few board members were sent to the company including Isao Nakamuchi and Ikuo Takagi under whose direction and supervise, the company has paid off the debt which was about 1 trillion 4 hundred million yen. After this, the company has not belong to any organisations or group company and remaining in neutral as an information service company. Joint purchasers including "Cosmos Initia Co., Ltd.” has made successful bid for 424 properties since 2004 from former Japan post. The company is currently headquartered in Marunouchi, in Chiyoda, Tokyo. In June 2012 it was announced that Recruit plans to go public within the next year. A holding company will be established in October 2012, and it will be listed on either the Tokyo Stock Exchange or another exchange.
