Acquisition to cement StepStone's presence in France

StepStone, the European provider of Total Talent solutions, today announces the acquisition of Sourcea.fr, a leading French niche market job board focused on Telesales, Banking, Marketing and Secretarial Services.

This acquisition marks StepStone's first acquisition in the French market since 2000, and will complement the company's existing French businesses, which includes job board StepStone.fr and StepStone Solutions France.

Founded in 2000 in by Boris Gourmelen, Sourcea.fr typically carries over 2,500 job vacancies across several niche sectors including Telesales, Banking, Marketing and Secretarial Services. By focussing on jobs for the BAC to BAC 3 level (recently qualified students from school leavers to Graduates), Sourcea.fr has developed a large audience of qualified job seekers ranging from students looking for their first job to experienced job seekers looking for their next role in their chosen profession.

StepStone has acquired Sourcea for an initial consideration of ?1.5 m, to be settled in cash, together with further payments in 2009 dependent upon financial performance in 2008. Boris Gourmelen will stay with the business and continue to lead his team of fifteen. Sourcea.fr will continue to operate as a separate online property alongside StepStone.fr, which will provide complimentary job board resources and related services.

Ralf Baumann, Group Managing Director for StepStone online, commented, Sourcea.fr has a fantastic reputation in this area, delivering high quality candidates for companies hiring in these niche sectors. The professionalism and results driven approach of Boris and his team make them an excellent match for StepStone.

After 7 years of independent development, this acquisition will allow us, in 2008 and the following years, to accelerate our development in France and to deliver better value to customers and job seekers. Finally, StepStone's strategy and vision will help Sourcea's team to meet those new challenges, said Boris Gourmelen, founder of Sourcea.fr.

Colin Tenwick, CEO of StepStone commented, France is one of the most important job markets in Europe and we are delighted to strengthen the position of our business by acquiring Sourcea.. The acquisition enables us to widen our strategy of acquiring successful online job board properties and utilising our expertise and resources to accelerate their market positions, and consolidate our leadership in France, which we believe offers considerable growth potential. I am confident that the local expertise of the new members of the StepStone team will make a significant contribution to our success in 2008.