Oikotie, a market place belonging to Helsingin Sanomat and shared by eight newspapers, will buy a share in Skillnet Oy, which is the leading recruitment system supplier in Finland. Oikotie's share will cover 38 percent. The sellers are the funds Midinvest Oy and Midinvest Fund I Ky. The acting management of Skillnet Oy will remain the company's main owner. The purpose is to acquire the whole of Skillnet in stages.

The deal strengthens Helsingin Sanomat's market leadership in recruitment advertising, and increases the amount of job advertisements in Oikotie and its magazine.

- In future, the recruitment advertising process can be closely integrated into customers' systems, and the newspaper ad can be made straight from an online advertisement database, says Jukka Haapalainen, Vice President of Oikotie.

- Job advertising is a very important business for Sanoma in strategic terms. Through Skillnet's strong expertise and its great product, we can strengthen Oikotie's position in the recruitment value chain and serve our customers increasingly well, says Mikael Pentikäinen, President of Sanoma Corporation.


Ilpo Niemelä, Managing Director of Skillnet Oy, considers that the benefits of synergy are significant.
- Helsingin Sanomat's leading position in recruitment advertising and Skillnet's leading position as recruitment system supplier are a good combination. The services provided by both parties will give considerable added value for both new and current customers.


Skillnet Oy is a software company established in 2000 providing Internet browser based software for competence management, recruitment and substitute management as Application Service Providing (ASP) services. The company's customers include leading companies in both the public and private sector.
Oikotie is a market place for accommodation, cars, tourism, education and jobs, shared by eight newspapers − Helsingin Sanomat, Turun Sanomat, Etelä-Suomen Sanomat, Etelä-Saimaa, Hämeen Sanomat, Kouvolan Sanomat, Kymen Sanomat and Salon Seudun Sanomat.

Oikotie belongs to Helsingin Sanomat Oy and is part of the SanomaWSOY Group.