New Reports inform Microsoft now owns 4% of job portal, CareerBuilder's equity stakes. With this development, the hold of the job portal's owners, Tribune Co., Gannett Co. Inc., McClatchy Co. on CareerBuilder decreases. Mclatchy already owns 31 newspapers and.

“Our strategic business relationship with MSN played a major part in CareerBuilder taking over as the industry leader in 2006, helping to drive critical levels of job search traffic,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder. “Microsoft’s equity stake builds on this successful relationship and establishes a global alliance with one of the world’s most ubiquitous technology powerhouses. It enables CareerBuilder to continue to grow faster in the U.S. than any other job site while leveraging a strong international platform to quickly enter new markets in Europe and all over the world.”

In response Microsoft's James McClamroch, general manger of business development for MSN said, " CareerBuilder is a really good fit for us." Analysts feel, Microsoft invested in the company to increase its presence in local markets. While the job site needs a global giant like Microsoft as a defense against others like Google (whose growth is unstoppable) and Yahoo! (who already works with McClatchy).

A relationship that began in January 2004 has benefited the job site tremendously. Within just 5 years, CareerBuilder skyrocketed from third spot to No 1 in the country. On April this year, it was reported CareerBuilder had 6 million more visitors than the No.2, Monster and 10 million more than No.3, Yahoo's HotJobs.

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