Rumors have been circulating that PeopleClick will be acquired soon, but company officials say that’s not a strategy they are pursuing for now.

“If anything, we would be looking to take over companies that will allow us to advance our goals,” says Brenda Hodge, PeopleClick's vice president of marketplace solutions. PeopleClick has taken an against-the-grain approach and is sticking with its emphasis on talent acquisition, rather following the trend of becoming an overall talent management company.

What may have fueled the rumors, in addition to the departure of CEO Stephen Sasser in December and the return of founder Ron Kupferman as chief executive, is that PeopleClick is shuffling its annual conference. The company recently sent out e-mails informing clients that the event, originally scheduled for July in Laguna Niguel, California, is being postponed until April 2008.

According to Hodge, the decision to shift the time was based on feedback it had received from clients, who had just attended a PeopleClick Conference in November 2006.

“They simply told us that the conferences were too close back to back,” she says. Another drawback was the July meeting dates. Clients said it would interfere with the summer vacations that they and their families had planned.

Hodge did confirm that PeopleClick has been approached by potential buyers. But with the consolidation that has gone on in the industry, particularly during the past six months, this wouldn’t be out of the norm. “We would be worried if nobody was knocking on our door,” Hodge says.

As for the future, Hodge says that PeopleClick is keeping its options open and that selling at some point cannot be discounted. She wouldn’t say what kind of buyer would be most appealing to the company.

"Right now we're not looking to get married, so we couldn't even begin to describe the kind of husband that we would want," Hodge says.

—Gina Ruiz