Dan Gilbert, the Detroit billionaire who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers and Quicken Loans Inc., is sending a message from his companies to laid off Yahoo! employees: Come to Detroit.
Quicken said last month that it was recruiting 1,400 new team members. In addition to 600 interns, the online lender is hiring 800 full-time employees for openings in “all areas of the company including technology.”
Quicken said in a January posting that it was recruiting 300 “technology all stars.”
Last week, Yahoo! announced that it would be eliminating more than a thousand positions as it restructures its business.
“Today, the company will begin the process of informing employees about these changes,” the April 4 statement said. “As part of that effort, approximately 2,000 people will be notified of job elimination or phased transition.”
But Gilbert sees Yahoo!’s struggle as an opportunity.
“A group of Detroit businesses are encouraging the more than 2,000 recently laid off Yahoo employees to consider bringing their talents to the Motor City,” a news release Monday said. “Quicken Loans, Detroit Venture Partners, Rockbridge Growth Equity and Fathead.com are among the downtown Detroit-based companies interested in hiring hundreds of technology and marketing professionals formerly employed by Yahoo.”
A website, www.ValleytoDetroit.com, was created for interested prospects to upload their resumes.
The announcement noted that Twitter is opening a Detroit office.
Quicken reported $30 billion in 2011 production.
