Kerry Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) has snapped up a quarter share in jobs Web site Seek.com.au, just days after its NineMSN joint venture shut down rival site monster.com.au.

The media giant picked up the stake for a tidy AU$33 million, much to the delight of Seek's directors.

Fierce competition has returned to the online jobs market, with the big players such as Fairfax, News Corporation and PBL all jostling for top spot. That position is currently held by Seek.

News Corporation has recently stepped up the marketing and advertising for its brand, CareerOne. It plans to re-brand the employment sections of its newspapers to become "CareerOne" sections, as Fairfax has done with its MyCareer brand.

Monster was losing AU$6 million per year -- shaving vital dollars of NineMSN's bottom line. A spokesperson for PBL said the part acquisition is a "particularly good deal" for NineMSN, because Seek will now pay AU$2 million in "channel" fees to the portal.

"It's a AU$4 million turnaround," she said.

PBL maintains shutting down Monster had nothing to do with the decision to purchase the share in Seek -- it was not made that long ago, but had "gradually firmed over several weeks".

ZDNet Australia  understands the Monster problem was thought of as a separate issue to the Seek acquisition -- the company was forced to make tough decisions when push came to shove. "The Monster site was not performing. It was pretty obvious that a decision needed to be made about the site," the spokeswoman said.

While Monster was losing money, Seek will immediately contribute revenue -- it became profitable as of last year.

James Packer will join Seek's board of directors following the acquisition.

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