I received an article from a colleague today that was probably the source for Jim Cramer’s musings last night on Mad Money that Monster is for sale (see my post from last night). The article was written by David Shabelman of the Daily Deal on April 13th. In the article, Shabelman observes that in naming Sal Iannuzzi as CEO, replacing William Pastore, Monster is clearly on the block. Iannuzzi was President and CEO of Symbol Technologies when that company was sold to Motorola for $3.9 billion. Shabelman goes on to say that the likely suitors are Google, eBay, Yahoo!, and Careerbuilder (Cramer added Gannett, seperate from Careerbuilder, to that list last night) and that the price tag could be as high as $7.4 billion or $60 per share and 19x projected ‘07 EBITDA. As further evidence that a deal is imminent, Shabelman cites the fact that recent regulatory filings include a board-approved bonus for outgoing CEO Pastore that included provisions for continued employment, so something dramatic has occurred in the last 2 weeks. Pastore, a proven operator with solid credibility on Wall Street, is replaced somewhat suddenly and unexpectedly by Iannuzzi, a proven deal-guy with a track record of selling companies. I’d say the odds are good that Monster will be sold in the very near future. But no matter what happens, there is no question that the already choppy waters in the employment classifieds space are getting even more turbulent.