Monster.com to leave bigger footprint in Orlando

ORLANDO -- Monster.com's parent company, TMP Worldwide -- the largest recruitment advertising a-gency in the world -- is expanding its Orlando services.

The company opened a small office in Maitland five months ago, offering permanent and contract staffing, commercial Yellow Page advertising and access to its wildly popular Web site job portal, Monster.com.

The newest service TMP plans to offer is placement for midlevel management on a contingency basis -- not charging the company a fee until after the candidate is delivered.

Other new services will include information technology, engineering and human resources. That's a result of TMP's April acquisition of two Tampa-based staffing companies, System One Services Inc. and Burlington Wells Inc. Beginning Aug. 1, the two acquisitions will consolidate services under the name TMP Executive Resourcing and function as a TMP Worldwide subsidiary.

TMP plans to move some of the former System One and Burlington Wells employees from Tampa to the Maitland office. Additionally, the company plans to hire 10 new people by year's end.

Look for more buying and selling: Chris Brown, founder of Burlington Wells and vice president of the new TMP Executive Resourcing unit, claims only $350 million has been spent of TMP's $500 million acquisition budget, and other nationwide acquisitions are in the wings.

Florida Digital: More money, more people

ORLANDO -- Florida Digital Network is selling a 6 percent stake in the company -- worth more than $13 million -- to fund expansion into new markets and improve existing services.

Under the guidance of CEO Mike Gallagher, the Orlando-based company already has raised more than $78 million in venture capital and equity funding. Florida Digital's latest equity sale is to an investor group led by Clark McLeod, a private investor and owner of a successful communication provider in the Midwest, and an earlier $40 million investor, GATX Capital Corp.

Steven Russel, Florida Digital's CFO, says the funds will be used to capture new markets, including Daytona, Fort Pierce and Tallahassee. Meanwhile, rumors that NewSouth Communications Corp., a Carolina-based company on the move in Florida, would acquire Florida Digital were denied by both parties. Gallagher claims he has no intent to sell. "We're still Florida's home-grown communications provider," says Gallagher.

And they're growing fast: Florida Digital has 240 employees, including some 20 new hires just last week.