I cannot even begin to fathom what this means, can you? But it sure seems smart and, well, like a big huge fat checkmate for Zulia — that is, Zillow and Trulia.
(Recall Zillow is acquiring Trulia, to gain a huge market share in online real estate listings and news. The entire world of real estate is freaking somewhat.)
Murdoch’s News Corp, mega behemoth media giant, will acquire all of Move’s outstanding shares and take over the company. Apparently, they have the full blessings of the National Association of Realtors. Move, of course, has a unique contract with the NAR to post listings from all the various members of NAR across the country — the agents. That is why Realtor.com website content is more accurate than Zillow or Trulia’s. Murdoch’s gonna have fun with this one. He’s now got the data straight from the horse’s mouth. Yippee! Expect many more real estate shows on television, and a totally jazzed up site which is, frankly, what Realtor.com needs.
Move stock is liking it: stock sold for $21 per share, a premium of 37% over Move’s closing stock price on September 29.
Meantime, Zillow and Trulia are respectively down almost 30% each from their July highs back when the Zillow/Trulia acquisition shocked the world as we know it. And on Sept 29, Zillow’s stock went down 3.76% same day, Trulia down 2.69%, with the cascade gradually increasing. Of course, I hear many people made a ton of cash on these stocks at the beginning.
What will Rupert do with 35 million readers? Create more engaging content so he can pull over the 85 million Zillow has:
“Rupert Murdoch’s global News Corp. promises to use its media platforms and compelling content to turbo-charge traffic growth and create the most successful real estate website in the US,” said Robert Thomson, CEO of News Corp.”
This story is going to get better by the second!
