Zillow group completes acquisition of trulia, inc.
Zillow has completed its acquisition of Trulia, Inc. The $2.5 billion deal, which was announced last year, has led to the formation of Zillow Group, Inc, America's now largest portfolio of real estate brands, including StreetEasy and HotPads in addition to Zillow and Trulia.
"This is a pivotal day in online real estate and we couldn't be more excited to welcome Trulia to Zillow Group," Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow Group, said in a statement.
"Each of our brands share a consumer-first philosophy, and our powerful combination of insights and expertise will drive even greater innovation for consumers, empowering them with essential information they need to make critical financial decisions. Our combination will also enable real estate professionals to more efficiently and easily reach the nation's largest audience of engaged buyers, sellers and homeowners, and extract even more value from their advertising."
Paul Levine, previously Trulia's chief operating officer, has been named president of Trulia and reports to Rascoff. Pete Flint, co-founder and former CEO of Trulia, has joined the Zillow Group board of directors, as has former Trulia board member Greg Waldorf. Zillow Group is expected to begin trading on Nasdaq on Feb. 18, 2015, under the ticker symbol "Z" and will inherit the trading history of Zillow Inc.
The deal has also caused legal activity to ensue, involving the provision of data from News Corp-owned Move, Inc., which powers ListHub, a listings syndicator that has previously fed properties to Trulia. Move, Inc. has said that it will cease providing listings its rival from 7th April.
“Brokers and agents — and the home sellers they represent — deserve the right to market their listings broadly, as they see fit," Paul Levine, president of Trulia, in a statement.
"Through this sudden and unilateral decision to cut off the ListHub feed to Trulia, News Corp. is creating an incredible hardship for agents and consumers, and is demonstrating a lack of understanding of our industry."