- Home
- >
- About Taleo
- >
- History
History
1996: Martin Ouellet Founds Viasite
Taleo has roots that date back to 1996, when founder Martin Ouellet created Viasite, which was to become the most successful job board in Canada. In 1998, Mr. Ouellet founded the company as Recruitsoft, Inc. in Quebec City, Canada. In September of 1998, Mr. Ouellet and Taleo Executive Chairman Louis Tetu began to work with visionary Fortune 500 companies to develop innovative online recruiting solutions to meet world class talent and human capital management needs.
1998: Louis Tetu Leads Innovation
With a background in supply chain management, Mr. Tetu understood the value that leveraging such concepts could bring to the recruiting and talent management processes of global corporations. Coupled with the power and connectivity of the Internet, talent supply chain management has delivered the same bottom-line and process improvement benefits to large enterprises that supply chain management had brought to manufacturing.
1999: Taleo Launches Recruiter WebTop™
Registered as a Delaware corporation and with a headquarters established in San Francisco, Taleo launched the first version of its solution, Recruiter WebTop, in September 1999 after spending a full year in development. The month following its debut, Recruiter WebTop was named one of the Top Ten Products of the Year by HR Executive Magazine.
2001: Taleo Goes Global
Taleo quickly opened offices in New York, Chicago, Montreal, and Toronto. In August 2001, the company established offices in Paris and Amsterdam. In 2003 and 2004, Taleo continued this global expansion with offices in the United Kingdom and Australia.
2003: Taleo Acquires White Amber
In October, 2003, Taleo acquired White Amber, Inc., a leading provider of temporary workforce management solutions with the industry's largest clients. The acquisition, which created the Taleo Contingent™ solution, extends the value Taleo delivers to enterprise customers seeking to manage both permanent employees and temporary workers, including contingent and service contractors, by integrating all sources of talent onto one platform. With complete workforce visibility into salaried, hourly, and contingent talent, organizations can not only identify opportunities for cost-saving process improvements, but also determine when it's in their best interest to hire permanent employees versus temporary workers.
2005: Taleo Acquires Recruitforce.com
In April 2005, Taleo acquired Recruitforce.com, which provided the applications and technology that has become Taleo Business Edition™. Taleo Business Edition runs on an open Web Services API, so developers can more easily build integration solutions and custom applications to connect candidate and requisition data. Now, even small businesses can run Taleo Business Edition with their HR, finance, and payroll systems.
Today: Thriving from North America Headquarters
Today, Taleo maintains its headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area and a research and development facility in Quebec City, where the company employs approximately 300 people focused solely on talent management applications. Taleo delivers a comprehensive suite of solutions for businesses of all sizes, matching all sources of talent-be they professional and hourly candidates, agency referrals, campus recruits, contingent workers, or existing employees-to all positions, whether it is centralized, decentralized, or multinational.