News Corp. has announced that it will be purchasing Move Inc., America’s third biggest online real estate listing company, for $950 million.
Move Inc.’s website Realtor.com is the third busiest site in its market and a News Corp. takeover will give the site a broad marketing platform on the Wall Street Journal’s network – which receives 500 million views per month.
Murdoch is diversifying the company after 21st Century Fox spun off and is making a move to enter the online real estate market, competing with the likes of Zillow and Trulia.
Robert Thomson, CEO of News Corp. said:
“We believe there is a massive market opportunity in the U.S. for online real estate revenue.” Adding that “this market is in the early stages of development.”
There has been a shift in the $14 billion annual advertising dollars used by the real estate business from print advertising to using digital platforms instead.
The spending is spread across hundreds of sites though and if big portals can consolidate it then there is the potential of huge profit.
In July Zillow and Trulia said that they have planed a $3.5-billion merger, which would give them more access to this increasing chunk of digital advertising.
Thomson said:
“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.,” adding, “we certainly expect this deal to amount to far more than the sum of its parts.”
Realtor.com has a strategic partnership with the National Assn. of Realtors, which gives them an advantage, while at the same time limiting what the site can offer.
The Realtors Assn. has said that it is on board with the News Corp. takeover.