Adecco's shares were down 43.2% at 46.50 Swiss francs by late morning in Zurich.
But the CEO of Adecco America says not to expect the overall U.S. economy to add jobs anytime soon.
Switzerland's Adecco (nyse: ADO - news - people ) (15, ADO) is one of the world's biggest temporary-staffing firms.
This isn't the first time Switzerland's Adecco has tried to acquire a British staffing company since the start of the economic downturn.
Cisco join Adecco, Cadbury and Deloitte in the second tier of sponsors.
Adecco sells at half of annual revenue and 17 times 2006 earnings.
Switzerland's Adecco (15, ADO) is one of the world's biggest temporary-staffing firms.
The chief executive of Spring Group, Peter Searle, is actually a former Adecco employee as well, so there won't be a culture shock.
Pavel Pluciennik, the marketing manager of Adecco in Poland, said that two million people had emigrated from the country in the last three years.
Adecco, whose stock is listed in Zurich and New York, has declined to expand on its statement, saying legal constraints prevent it from saying more.
The market assumed the worst and Adecco's share price fell sharply.
Adecco's statement hinted there might be more than one country involved.
The Adecco survey sample was relatively small, just 522 full-time workers polled in a telephone survey done from November 21-25, but to me, the findings ring true.
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The affair seemed to reinforce Adecco's yen for financial prudence.
"The U.K. government showed tremendous foresight, " says Peter Siderman, who runs an employment research institute financed by outsourcing giant Adecco Group and has studied the immigration wave to Britain.
Example: CareFusion, a San Diego-based maker of medical devices, has more than 50 nurse educators on its staff, plus a part-time team it hires through the staffing company Adecco.
John Bowmer, Adecco's former chairman who came out of retirement to oversee the re-auditing, complains about the way in which, under such a process, the auditors are in complete control.
The company had also lost its place as the world's biggest employment firm to Adecco, a European rival formed in 1996 by the merger of Adia Interim of Switzerland and Ecco of France.
"Adecco definitely needs a good management team in the U.K., " said Michael Foeth, an analyst with Bank Vontobel, who said Spring Group's focus on professional staffing could also bring in growth and profitability in the future.
The difference is that Adecco is presenting the deal as a conservative way to cut costs and turn around its British operations, which were experiencing a slowdown even before recession hit, as opposed to a risky expansion.
"The U.K. government showed tremendous foresight, " says Peter Siderman, who runs an employment research institute financed by outsourcing giant Adecco (nyse: ADO - news - people ) Group and has studied the immigration wave to Britain.
Adecco, the giant Zurich, Switzerland-based human resources consulting firm, just ran a survey of 500 hiring managers that found that respondents said they were three times as likely to hire a mature worker, defined as age 50 or above (60%), as they were to hire a Millennial (20%).
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