.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} The story of Dice Holdings Inc., parent company of Urbandale-based Dice, is a familiar one. Like so many dot-coms after the turn of the 21st century, the once high-flying online career and recruitment company was forced into bankruptcy in 2003. But unlike many of its cohorts, the company emerged on the other side with its business and optimism intact.

And on July 18, Dice shares once again began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “DHX.”

“We are a much different company today than we were the first time around,” said Scot Melland, president and CEO of Dice Holdings Inc. “We’re much larger and much more stable than we’ve ever been.”

Earlier this month, Dice reported its second-quarter results, and though net income declined to $1.6 million from $1.9 million, revenues were up 79 percent to $34 million, including $8.1 million from eFinancialCareers, which Dice acquired in October 2006.

“Our company has experienced some pretty dramatic growth,” Melland said. “We are very pleased.”

Net income was down, Melland said, because of the eFinancialCareers acquisition, as well as a move the company made to reduce its overall debt.

Dice currently operates four different job sites: Dice.com, the nation’s leading job board for technology professionals; eFinancialCareers.com, which focuses on jobs in the financial services market; JobsintheMoney.com, a banking and accounting job site; and ClearanceJobs.com, a site for job seekers who hold active or current Department of Defense, Department of State and Department of Energy security clearances.

Melland said at Dice.com, for example, the company averages 2 million unique visitors per month, a number that continues to go up.

Melland joined the company in 2001 and has seen it go through bankruptcy, becoming privately held and now, once again, returning to its status as a public company.

“We wanted to be a public company because it will give us the financial wherewithal to grow,” he said.

Dice is a relatively unknown company, despite the high number of people who use its job boards, Melland said. So, another upside to being a publicly traded company is that it raises Dice’s profile and gives it an “extra ounce of credibility,” he said.

Dice was founded in San Francisco as Earth Web, but moved to Urbandale in 1994. Its previous shares were delisted in 2003 amid bankruptcy proceedings. The company was purchased in 2003 by two New York investment companies. Those two companies – General Atlantic LLC and Quadrangle Group LLC – will retain ownership of more than 50 percent of Dice shares.

Through it all, Dice has managed to not only survive, Melland said, but to actually grow.

“We weathered the storm of the dot-com fallout,” he said. “We began to focus completely on online recruiting, an area where we see incredible growth potential.”

Dice currently employs just under 300 employees, with nearly 200 of those in Urbandale, Melland said. He said that is the highest number since he joined the company in 2001.

“We have our corporate offices in New York and sales offices all across the country,” he said. “But the bulk of our employment is in Urbandale. We made a decision very early on that we wanted to grow in Iowa.”

The 90,000-square-foot Urbandale facility houses the core of the company’s technology operations, the bulk of its marketing and finance departments, and its customer service and telesales staffs.

When Melland looks into the future, he sees even more changes in store for his company.

“We’re going to continue to invest in our core services,” he said, “especially sales and marketing and product development. But I also see us expanding into some new countries.”

Melland said Europe and Asia are two growing markets he would like to see his company expand into. He also hopes Dice will expand into other professional categories.

“Right now we operate in 14 different markets across the world and in five languages,” he said. “I see us growing and expanding even further.”