realtor.com

PHOTO: Realtor.com

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is looking to sell the parent company of Realtor.com, with the news breaking just hours after it became clear his plan to combine the news company with Fox Corp had been scrapped.

Realtor.com is a real estate listings website operated by the News Corp subsidiary Move, Inc. and based in Santa Clara, California. It is the second most visited real estate listings website in the United States as of 2021, with over 100 million monthly active users. The site launched as the Realtor Information Network in 1995, serving as a closed network for members of the National Association of Realtors. It relaunched in 1996 as a public website displaying property listings. Since then, Realtor.com claims to be the largest real estate website in the United States, and in 2016 was valued at $2.5 billion by Morgan Stanley.

Had News Corp and Fox Corp combined, it would have put the 91-year-old’s empire back together, after he split it back in 2013.

Now News Corp has confirmed it is looking to sell Move Inc, which owns Realtor.com, with discussions taking place with CoStar, according to The Guardian.

If it goes ahead deal is believed to be worth about $3 billion dollars.

“Any potential transaction would support News Corp’s strategy to optimise the value of its Digital Real Estate Services segment, while strengthening Realtor.com’s competitive position in the market,” News Corp told The Guardian.

News Corp acquired Move in 2014 for $950 million and REA Group, which also falls under the News Corp banner, owns 20 per cent of Move, according to Bloomberg.

If CoStar buys Move and Realtor.com, it will expand its footprint in the US residential market after acquiring Apartments.com for $585 million in 2014, ForRent.com in 2017 for $385 million and HomeSnap for $250 million in 2020, according to The Real Deal.

CoStar’s current market cap is $32 billion, more than double what it was in 2018.

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