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IT info and IPOs If you're an information technology professional, where do you go for help? Probably to EarthWeb, a conglomeration of sites that provide advice and services to an audience that includes an estimated 15 million IT professionals worldwide. EarthWeb supplies its readers with the full text of hundreds of technical books, proprietary tutorials, job listings, and community areas. Essentially, EarthWeb has shaped itself into a portal for programmers. The helpful brothers EarthWeb was founded by brothers Jack and Murray Hidary. While at Columbia University, Jack Hidary, helping to build a computer network, couldn't help but notice that it was rather difficult to build on the Internet. Together with his brother and their friend Nora Spivack, Jack created EarthWeb, a nexus of advice-providing sites for programmers and other IT professionals. An IPO in November 1998 was a startling success. EarthWeb's shares, valued at $14, shot up to $48.68 on the stock market in the same day. In January 2000, EarthWeb moved to solidify its position in the IT world by acquiring MeasureUp, Inc., an online certification preparation and assessment solutions company for the IT industry, as well as two other companies (CCPrep and NetCerts, Inc.), both of which offer online certification preparation products and services designed for IT professionals seeking Cisco certification. These acquisitions totaled some $19 million in stock and cash with additional consideration of up to $10 million to be paid based upon future performance over a three-year period. A look at the future But will EarthWeb ever make any money? The company admits that it gets most of its revenues from advertising - a widely unpopular business model - and cannot foresee a time when it will turn a profit. In EarthWeb's favor, however, it is a business-to-business site - targeting professionals interested in business services - as opposed to other advertising-dependent sites that pin their hopes on widespread popularity. The company itself claims to be "uniquely positioned" by focusing on what it estimates to be 15 million IT professionals worldwide. The company has started subscriber-only services and hopes to grow e-commerce - one of the Internet's major moneymakers.
Want a job at EarthWeb? The company encourages people with technical and creative ability to send a resume to jobs@earthweb.com. Hiring is up at EarthWeb - its personnel more than doubled in 1998. The company is often in search of systems, marketing, and business development professionals.
Rebecca Haralabatos
Ziff-Davis;CMP;Cnet More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
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