Zillow Inc, the famous real estate website, is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire rival website Trulia Inc. People familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that if the talks don't fall apart, a deal could be announced as soon as next week. No further details of the deal were available, but one of the sources said that the merger, if it happens, will value Trulia at about $2 billion.
If the deal does come to fruition, it will be a merger of two online real estate titans. In the first quarter of 2014, Zillow reported record $66.2 million earnings in revenue, posting a 70 percent year-on-year growth. Trulia's first quarter revenue was also up 127 percent from a year earlier to $54.5 million.
Both Zillow and Trulia reported unique website traffic of 79 million and 44.6 million respectively in the first quarter. Most of the traffic on both websites are coming from mobile devices.
A recent traffic analysis by ComScore found that Zillow received 53.8 million unique visitors in May 2014 alone and Trulia got 30.8 million unique visits everyday.
A merger would bring together two online residential brokering powerhouses and experts believe that the deal would make it hard fro others to compete in the market.
"It's a blockbuster. What this says is, Zillow has been and has locked up the absolute dominant position in online real estate in the United States," Steve Murray, president of Real Trends Inc., told Bloomberg.
"This follows on Zillow's aggressive path to dominate the residential real estate space and become the undisputed leader in providing consumer-convenient, one-stop home shopping information. Life for all other real estate portals will become twice as hard," Stefan Swanepoel, a real estate trends consultant and author, told the agency in an e-mailed statement.
Zillow purchased Streeteasy, the New York-based listing service, last year for $50 million.
Zillow has grown tremendously since its launch. It went public in 2011 and has consistently tried to implement new ideas, using technology to revolutionize the real estate industry.
It has got its share of bad publicity too. Many people have complained of the site displaying wrong listing information and bad PR services. Realtors have also complained of biases like 'Zip Code Purchasing.' Despite the bad blood, Zillow continues to vouch for quality service.
The Zillow-Trulia deal could indeed prove to be a profitable move for both the companies as online real estate portals gain more popularity.
"Most people today start their home search online, and those numbers are growing yearly. It's the number one place to go for anyone who is even remotely thinking about searching for a home," Amy Webb of Nest Realty told C-Ville.com.
