German professional networking site Xing, a LinkedIn rival, announced that it has acquired Berlin-based IT recruitment platform Honeypot GmbH.

The basic acquisition price is €22 million, with earn-outs of up to €35 million to be paid in addition if certain operating targets are reached within the next three years.

The acquisition comes ahead of Xing’s planned rebrand to ‘New Work’ in the second half of 2019.

Honeypot was launched in 2015 by Kaya Taner and Emma Tracey. The platform enables companies to apply for IT specialists. Honeypot also focuses on the needs of IT specialists by offering them CV advice and showing them typical salaries in their industry. Companies looking to apply for IT specialists on Honeypot are required to provide details such as salary, location, programming languages and technology in use.

According to Xing, its acquisition of Honeypot enables it to further reinforce its international presence.

Honeypot is now planning to rapidly grow its business activities in German-speaking countries, and is looking to expand to other international markets. Xing, in turn, is planning to invest significantly in these expansion plans.

The recruitment platform stated that it supports approximately 100,000 IT specialists and over 1,500 businesses and sees 1,000 new registrations every week.

Xing CEO Thomas Vollmoeller commented, “This acquisition is an excellent addition to our New Work portfolio. Honeypot focuses on candidates by helping them to find a job matching their individual preferences.” The Honeypot acquisition also represents an additional milestone in terms of executing the company’s strategy as Xing SE intends to rename itself New Work SE during the second half of 2019 to pave the way for further growth. With subsidiaries and brands such as kununu and HalloFreelancer, Xing is far more than just a single network. New Work is the umbrella spanning all our business activities.”