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Monster.com Erases $339.6 Million from Books

The internet job search web site, Monster, said Wednesday that flowing an internal investigation on backdating of stock options it has decided to erase $339.6 million from its books due to the mispricing of employee options from 1997 to 2003. "The company believes that [backdating] was done intentionally, by persons formerly in positions of responsibility at the company, for the purpose of issuing options at a higher intrinsic value than would have otherwise been the case," the report said.

In the company`s 2005 annual report, the company stated that it was undergoing an investigation into the company`s backdating policies. The report found that former company executives were responsible for the backdating of stock options. In the beginning of November, Andrew McKelvey, the web site founder, resigned from the company`s board of directors, after he resigned from the position of company CEO. His resignation was due to the backdating scandal.

Monster is one of largest job search web sites on the Internet. The company says it has over a million job postings at any time and over 41 million resumes in its database. The company employs approximately 5,000 people in 26 countries. The company has a powerful global brand and unparalleled international reach. Monster is the only pan-European employment website and is growing fast in developing markets such as India. The company was created in 1999 when The Monster Board and Online Career Center (OCC) merged. The two companies were two of the first and most popular employment web sites on the Internet.