Businessmen Denis O’Brien and Leslie Buckley offload ChinaHR

Businessmen Denis O'Brien and Leslie Buckley have retreated from the Chinese online recruitment market after just two years, after selling their ChinaHR business last week to Asian online classifieds company 58. com.

According to local reports, some staff at the website business reacted angrily after being told their positions were being made redundant, although it is hoped that the Nasdaq-listed new owner of the business may take many of them on. The staff are understood to have concerns about their payoff packages.

There was no comment from a spokesman for Mr Buckley yesterday.

No sale price was disclosed for ChinaHR, which cost Mr Buckley and Mr O’Brien about $30 million two years ago. The business had struggled under its previous owner, Monster, which paid about $254 million buying up the Chinese unit between 2005 and 2008.

In a Sunday Times interview with Mr Buckley in 2013, it was reported the two businessmen planned to invest up to €70 million in ChinaHR, although it is unclear if the full level of that investment had been made before the business was sold to 58.com.

At the time Mr Buckley said they could “easily bring this business to €100 million a year from its then €30 million annual revenues”.

The deal marks almost the complete exit of Mr O'Brien and Mr Buckley from the online recruitment market after they sold the rest of their Saon Group to Stepstone in 2013. That included sites such as Irishjobs.ie and a recruitment business in the Caribbean. They reportedly still have an online recruiter in Myanmar.

58.com has spent heavily in recent times on Chinese online recruitment businesses. It paid $1.6 billion last month to acquire a 43 per cent stake in Ganji. com, which, in addition to jobs also carries ads for houses and general goods and services. The group recently announced an investment by Tencent, another Chinese internet business, valued at $400 million.