Monster Buys Community Builder Affinity Labs

By Tomio Geron     January 7, 2008     VentureWire

After only about one and a half years and more than $6 million in venture backing, Affinity Labs Inc. has sold itself to Monster Worldwide Inc. for $61 million in cash.

Monster, which runs the popular Monster.com job site, was attracted to Affinity's collection of vertical sites focusing on professional communities, such as police, firefighters, tech workers and artists, said Affinity founder Christopher Michel.

Founded in 2006, Affinity Labs raised its capital from Trinity Ventures and Mayfield Fund in a Series A that closed in November 2006.

San Francisco-based Affinity's community sites provide news, social networking and other specially tailored services for various job niches. As media fragments from traditional forms, Affinity helps Monster and its advertisers target these niches.

"What we bring is real expertise in these verticals," said Michel, who will be joining Monster and report directly to Monster chief executive Sal Iannuzzi. All Affinity employees are joining Monster, Michel said.

The community sites also allow Monster's members to use social networking features that have been popularized by sites such as professionally-oriented social network LinkedIn Corp., which is backed by more than $25 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, European Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners.

Michel has a prior connection with Monster, having sold his last start-up, Military.com, a similarly-conceived community site for military personnel, to Monster in 2004.