Jobs Website Specialist Dice Holdings Buys Geeknet's Media Business

Techies are coming together under the same umbrella. Dice Holdings (DHX) is acquiring Geeknet's (GKNT) online media business.

The two companies themselves may not be household names outside of tech circles, but some of the properties involved in the transaction may be familiar.

Dice will be acquiring three websites from Geeknet, tech news aggregator Slashdot, open source index Freecode, and open source software hub SourceForge. SourceForge alone attracts roughly 40 million unique monthly visitors from all over the world.

Dice Holdings operates several community websites dedicated to particular employment niches. Dice.com is the company's flagship hub for tech professionals. Other Dice websites include Rigzone for energy industry workers and ClearanceJobs.com for those with security clearance.

A Good Fit

When investors think of employment-oriented websites they probably have LinkedIn (LNKD) or Monster Worldwide (MWW) on their mind.

LinkedIn is the leading social networking website for white-collar professionals. Monster.com is the popular job listings website and online recruiter.

Dice simply prefers to manage vocal forums where niche professionals come to share wisdom and blow off steam. The end result is that Dice's websites are very attractive to human resource departments in certain fields. If you're trying to smoke out bank managers or investment bankers, why not see what's happening at Dice's eFinancialCareers.com.

Geeknet's Freecode and SourceForge are major online meeting areas for open source programmers. Slashdot appears to a wider audience of consumers and techies alike that are interested in technology news.

Back to Selling Star Trek Cookie Cutters

Geeknet isn't going away after selling its online media business. The company's major driver in recent years has been the ThinkGeek store.

Folks clamoring for Star Wars car decals, hairy-footed Hobbit slippers, and inflatable Star Trek captain's chairs have been turning to ThinkGeek.com in growing numbers. The company's e-commerce revenue grew 26% last year, accounting for 83% of Geeknet's total revenue.

Selling its online media business probably wasn't an easy decision. Many of those website visitors are ideal ThinkGeek customers. However, Geeknet will now be able to focus on what has become its primary business.

The techies will be fine during the migration process.

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz does not own shares in any of the stocks in this article. The Motley Fool owns shares of Linkedin. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Linkedin.