Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. announced this morning that it will acquire Move Inc., operator of Realtor.com, for $950 million.
News Corp., best known for its media holdings, which include Fox News, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, already owns minority and/or ownership stakes in a variety of global property websites, including REA Group Limited, the operator of the leading property search website in Australia. REA will hold a 20 percent stake in Move, with 80 percent held by News Corp. directly.
The acquisition has already been approved by Move’s board. Under the terms of the deal, News Corp will acquire all the outstanding shares of Move for $21 per share, or approximately $950 million in cash.
"This acquisition will accelerate News Corp’s digital and global expansion and contribute to the transformation of our company, making online real estate a powerful pillar of our portfolio," Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp., said in a statement, "We intend to use our media platforms and compelling content to turbo-charge traffic growth and create the most successful real estate website in the U.S. … this acquisition will give News Corp a significant marketing platform for our media assets, which will benefit from the high-quality geographic data generated by real estate searches."
The deal comes after a difficult year for Move, which saw the defections of several top executives to rival real estate search portals Zillow and Trulia, as well as the withdrawal of key partnership deals to power real estate search on other sites. Zillow and Trulia announced their own $3.5 billion merger earlier this summer; combined, the two sites control approximately two-thirds of real estate search traffic, with Move’s Realtor.com a distant third.
For the year ended Dec. 31, 2013, Move reported $227 million in revenues, and generated the highest revenue per unique user in the industry.
Move will become an operating business of News Corp and remain headquartered in San Jose, Calif. The company, started in 1993, has 913 employees.
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals, but is expected to close by the end of the year.
Advisors on the transaction include Goldman Sachs, as financial advisor, and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP, as legal advisor, for News Corp and Morgan Stanley, as financial advisor, and Cooley LLP, as legal advisor, for Move.
