Monster: Abandoned by its shareholders, the online recruitment giant placed in receivership

French taxpayers are once again at risk of footing the bill for two multi-billion-dollar multinationals. Monster France, a pioneer in online job searches, is going into liquidation today. Its shareholders ? The American investment fund Apollo and the Dutch company Randstad, the world's number one temporary staffing company.

Two financial giants. Apollo has $840 billion in assets (according to the latest Reuters figures). Randstad's turnover in 2024 is €3.6 billion (according to the group's official figures).

However, it is indeed "the public solidarity system financed by French employers that will assume the payment of salaries and severance pay," denounces the press release from the Monster France CSE. Around thirty French employees are concerned , there are 200 at the European level.

"I'm angry," says Daphné Lepers, sales manager. She cites a colleague on her team who is taking very heavy medication to treat a recurrence of cancer. Another, who is disabled , is close to retirement. Unlike a traditional redundancy, where owners assume their social responsibilities, employees' mutual insurance plans are not renewed as part of a liquidation procedure.

The anger is all the greater because employees thought they were safe. A company agreement was signed in 2023 at the request of the unions between Monster France and the global management, based in the United States, under the aegis of Randstad.

Specific measures for older employees, retraining assistance, mobility assistance, generous severance pay ... the guarantees were numerous. But this contract is now "ignored," denounces the press release from the Monster France CSE. It was, however, normally valid until 2027.

This company agreement was concluded before the Apollo investment fund acquired a stake in the company. It is Randstad that employees are particularly condemning: "The group was our sole shareholder for eight years, and we consider it 100% responsible for this situation," says Matteo Nicolo, CFDT union representative and staff representative at Monster France.

Indeed, Apollo's arrival as a shareholder was very recent. In September 2024, Randstad signed a partnership with the investment fund, but the Dutch company had been the sole owner of Monster since 2016.

"Randstad brought Monster to the table. Apollo had acquired CareerBuilder, one of our long-standing competitors, in 2017 ," explains Matteo Nicolo. "The goal was to merge the two names. This partnership was presented to us as a new future."

According to the union representative, the teams were enthusiastic: "We were all very excited about the signing of the partnership." New investments in their new entity Monster + CareerBuilder were expected.

The merger's failure was abruptly declared, in just eight months, at the beginning of June. Monster's American management announced to the European teams that Randstad and Apollo "were not going to put any money back into the company and were looking to sell as quickly as possible," explains the staff representative. "We feel like we've been duped because we believed it," says Daphné Lepers.

But, behind the resentment, it's the questions that are most pressing. "We wonder if there was premeditation. But we don't have any proof," says the sales manager. She adds: "We know that, for a joint venture (the financial name for the agreement between Apollo and Randstad – Editor's note), we wait at least eighteen months to know if it will work."

Apollo's reputation is well-known: its business model is based on buying companies, restructuring them, and reselling them . However, no major restructuring has been carried out. But above all: what has Randstad gained? "If it was lost, why not have closed the company? Why have entered into this joint venture with Apollo, and not instead have closed Monster properly last September?" asks Daphné Lepers.

"It seems clear that this was all a setup to avoid difficulties," says Matteo Nicolo regarding the liquidation. But the opacity of financial decisions and the interests of the economic actors involved remains.