Last week when we were all gearing up for a Holiday weekend, Talent Technology corporation quietly acquired VisualCV.com. The press release does not say how much was paid, but given the fact that VisualCV was planning to shut down operations at the end of the month, you can only assume they got a good deal. And for VisualCV and their customers - a lot better than shutting down.

While this might not stack up to be front page news, it is further evidence we are in a period of consolidation. But there a few things about this one that might be signs of some things to come.

If you listen to the marketing and sales pitches of the technology vendors, you might believe that switching platforms and implementing new software is your best option to optimize your talent management processes.

Unless of course you are listening to the Account Rep of your current vendor. In that case, all you need to do is tweak your existing implementation and get more from what you already have.

A few years ago when Jerome Ternynck told me he was launching SmartRecruiters, a Free applicant tracking system, I thought he was a little crazy. Applicant tracking is a tough business. All those years of hard work getting Mr. Ted off the ground must have made him a little mad. Was he doing this for spite? Was it just for fun?

Well little did I know he was out to change an industry. Today SmartRecruiters announced $5 million in Series A financing led by Silicon Valley’s Mayfield Fund.  

I just learned that Tom Bahlo passed away a few weeks ago. My deepest sympathies to his family and close friends. I considered Tom a good friend. I knew he loved his kids, loved to ski, and he was big into cycling, hiking, a true California outdoorsman. But our friendship was more business related than it was personal. He was one of the early pioneers in the talent management technology industry and had a profound impact on my career.

Upon hearing this news, I can think of nothing else to write about. So here is my tribute to Tom Bahlo:

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've noticed a lot of moving and shaking going on in the HR software industry. While mergers and acquisitions are always interesting for industry analysts, the most recent bout of activity – including the acquisitions of Rypple and SuccessFactors by Salesforce and SAP (respectively), as well as the announcement of VC funds flowing into the market (with large investments in SmartRecruiters  and iCIMS) – are particularly exciting. Why? Because this activity is driving change in areas of talent management technology that we primarily paid lip service to in 2011.

When I think about how far technology has come in the last 10 years I am always amazed. When you google the name of a restaurant on your i-phone, click the map to get real time directions from your current location with a hot link to dial the number, you wonder how we ever got by with phone books and maps.  

There is no question technology has changed forever the way we do certain things, and generally it is much easier.

But every once in a while something comes along that requires a new skill. Something you never expected you would have to do.

One thing I learned early in my career is that if you want to gain anything in this world you need to learn how to give. I attended one of those "self-help" seminars when I was 22 and there was a slogan emblazoned everywhere, on banners, coffee mugs, buttons and lapel pins: "Givers Gain."

While I left the seminar drinking the kool-aide, I was still a little skeptical and thought they really only meant the act of giving makes you feel good about yourself - and thus a gain. 

But it wasn't until I actually had the opportunity to put giving into practice and saw the results first hand that I became a true believer. Here is my story:

Well it did not take long for the other shoe to drop.

Today it was announced that Oracle intends to acquire Taleo. There has been a lot of speculation that this would be the next big acquisition and I think it makes a lot of sense. We took a poll here at InsideTMT and 50% of the respondents thought so too.

Here is the message from Taleo's CEO Michael Gregoire:

When you talk about any technology these days there is one word that will inevitably enter your conversation.  

Mobile.

Everything is going mobile. It still amazes me how much computing power is now available in the palm of your hand. We no longer call them cell phones. They are now called mobile devices. You can still make phone calls if you want, just in case you get tired of texting.

Up until last week, you were living in bliss. Last year, you convinced your leadership team to purchase a full talent management suite to streamline hiring, onboarding, performance review and learning management across every department. And then it happened. Your beloved talent management provider was acquired.

When SAP made the move to acquire SuccessFactors back in December, we all expected it would spur further consolidations. A few weeks ago Oracle counter punched and announced their intent to acquire Taleo, probably the most predicted acquisition in the history of mankind.

This is the most buzz the talent management technology space has seen since the hostile take over of PeopleSoft. Bill Kutik's HRTech Conference LinkedIn Group has created so much content, it is like reading a dissertation in HCM Technology.

One of the big questions in the discussion is: Who will be next?

Are you getting tired of the "Engagement" buzzword? It seems every time you turn around these days there is some new product with a marketing campaign that claims they will be able to jack your engagement scores. Driving employee engagement has definitely become the holy grail of any and all human capital management practices. 

But what if I told you that your traditional engagement scores might not be such a great predictor of your business performance?

I remember when I was first introduced to the Internet at work. It was such a radical concept to be able to send an email to a person outside of my company. I remember searching my ATS for the keyword ".com" just so I could find candidates with an email address. And then I got Gopher, and was able to explore databases like Help Wanted USA, Online Career Center, and the Usenet News Groups. OMG - misc.jobs.resumes was like striking gold!

Back then the question was "will internet recruiting really take?" The issue being, should we really dehumanize such a human intensive process?

Yesterday Cornerstone Ondemand, the leading stand alone talent management suite provider, announced the acquisition of Sonar6, a popular performance management application for the middle market. While it does not surprise me to see continued M&A activity, I think anyone would be hard pressed to show evidence that they would have predicted this combination. 

With the long awaited debut of the organically developed applicant tracking module, most of us (well... me anyway) are expecting a 1st generation ATS with limited capability that will pale in comparison to the established products. You would have thought Cornerstone might acquire some hot new social recruiting platform to accelerate the final pillar in the suite.

But this is a classic example of a company deciding to Zig while everyone else is Zagging! And I love it, here is why:

I received an interesting email yesterday with a link to an Infographic put together by Jobvite. It is an illustration of the changing relationship between workers and employer and indicates the current average worker will have up to 11 jobs in their career. 

The Infographic was accompanied by a press release and the data was also incorporated into Dan Finnigan's presentation at SXSW entitled: "The Future of Work: Serial Monogamy." During his presentation he draws the analogy that in our generation, moving from one employer to the next every 4-5 years is like serial monogamy. But the next generation is moving so frequently it's more like speed dating.