So apparently Trulia’s agreement with ListHub to receive listing data was set to expire next spring, 2016. But ListHub decided to turn it off sooner, like February 26, based on the Trulia-Zillow merger.
ListHub — which is owned by Realtor.com operator Move Inc., a News Corp. subsidiary — announced Thursday that it had terminated its syndication agreement with Trulia in the wake of its acquisition by Zillow and would stop sending listings to Trulia on Feb. 26.
Zillow announced Friday that it had filed for a temporary restraining order in a bid to keep listings flowing to Trulia.
Well now a Judge says that cannot happen. Trulia was given a temporary restraining order to NOT stop those listings coming. Bring ’em, baby. Apparently, the cessation was too much of a jolt for most brokers with spring coming up.
“Since News Corp. announced its decision on Friday to prematurely cut off the listing feed to Trulia, we’ve received an influx of calls from MLSs and brokers who were concerned that they and their clients wouldn’t be able to effectively market their listings ahead of the home shopping season.
“We’re very pleased with this preliminary decision, and hopeful the court will grant us the further time necessary to make this transition in an orderly way.”
ListHub, which is owned by Move, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., may end up having to give more notice to pull out. Of course News Corp says it’s looking forward to its day in court — “We look forward to another ‘liberating moment’ for Zillow on March 12, when we will have the opportunity to make our full case in court. In the meantime, we are happy to continue supplying the industry’s best data.” Wonder what they will argue. This is getting to be better than a soap opera!
