Glassdoor's Long Merger With Indeed Is Finally Done

Indeed began notifying customers this week that Glassdoor is officially part of Indeed, Inc. as of July 1. The customer email said the Glassdoor brand and product still exist, and the single sign-on introduced earlier this year will continue to work across both sites. Anonymous reviews will remain anonymous under an updated privacy policy, a nod to a 2024 controversy when users accused the site of adding names to their profiles without consent.

For users of either platform, the immediate change is minimal.

A Formality, Not a Surprise

July 1 just formalized the inevitable. Recruit acquired Indeed in October 2012 and Glassdoor in June 2018, keeping them as separate brands with separate leadership. But the businesses have been converging for years: a 2020 partnership let employers post to both sites through Indeed's ad products, bundled the two companies' employer-branding tools and pooled Glassdoor and Indeed reviews inside a single employer dashboard.

In July 2025, Bloomberg reported on a leaked memo from Recruit Holdings CEO Hisayuki "Deko" Idekoba announcing 1,300 layoffs — roughly 6% of the company's HR Technology segment — and the integration of Glassdoor's operations into Indeed. The announcement landed roughly a month after Idekoba returned to the CEO role. Idekoba framed the cuts as an AI pivot. "AI is changing the world, and we must adapt by ensuring our product delivers truly great experiences," he wrote to staff, citing internal data that AI helps someone find a job on Indeed "every 2.2 seconds."

The company conducted a further layoff of a "small amount" of employees in November 2025. The same month, new Glassdoor users had to sign in with an Indeed account. Existing users were given until April 20, 2026 to link theirs or lose full access. 

How Long Will the Math Math?

The cuts and the mergers follow a successful year for HR Technology, the segment housing Indeed and Glassdoor, which grew revenue and expanded profit margins substantially in the fiscal year ending March 2026. On the May earnings call, CFO Junichi Arai attributed the margin jump to "efficiency improvements, including lower personnel expenses" — a rare instance of a company saying out loud what "efficiency" stands in for. Recruit has told investors it expects margins to keep expanding for years to come.

The growth story changes when you look at the performance of the job board. The total volume of US job postings on Indeed declined roughly 7% last fiscal year. The revenue grew because Recruit raised prices: average revenue per U.S. customer rose 17%. The company is projecting another 4% decline in job postings this year, another 18% price increase and 12.6% revenue growth. The AI features Idekoba alluded to — sourcing, screening, matching — are the justification for the pricing.

It's a Strange Time for Job Boards

Recruit isn't alone. ZipRecruiter is shrinking, too. Revenue slipped about 2% last quarter, sales are expected to be flat for 2026 and the company is telling investors it can grow profits by cutting costs. 

LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, is the success story of the three. It grew revenue 12% in the same quarter, and its AI-powered Talent Solutions products have already reached a $450 million annualized run rate. But even LinkedIn cut 875 jobs in May. It just didn't give AI as the reason.

What happens to Glassdoor inside a business that has been shrinking its workforce, its job-posting volume and its non-AI features in the same year? It was built on employee-submitted reviews and salary data. Will that data become training material?

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