It was the $3 billion deal that never came to be.
During an earnings call with investors, CoStar CEO Andy Florance made the surprise announcement that the company would not be buying Move Inc., parent company to Realtor.com, following weeks of buzzy news about the possible sale.
“At this point, CoStar is not acquiring Realtor.com,” Florance said. Wwe continue to believe that the Homes.com business model and principles are well aligned with [National Association of Realtors] members and real estate agents generally.”
As we reported on last month, News Corp. confirmed that it was in discussion with CoStar to sell off Move Inc., with Bloomberg reporting the deal was in the neighborhood of $3 billion.
Following Florance’s call with investors, News Corp released a statement that read, in part: “News Corp today confirmed that it is no longer engaged in discussions with CoStar Group, Inc. regarding a potential sale of Move, Inc, operator of Realtor.com. News Corp will continue to actively assess opportunities to support the Company’s strategy to optimize the value of its Digital Real Estate Services segment and otherwise maximize shareholder value.”
News Corp acquired Move in 2014 for $950 million. REA Group Ltd., also part of the News Corp umbrella, also owns 20 percent of Move. Other brands under the Move umbrella include ListHub, UpNest, Avail, Doorsteps and Moving.com.
Elsewhere during the call, Florance also shared news that has seemingly been eclipsed by the News Corp non-deal: CoStar saw both its revenue and profits jump in the fourth quarter of 2022!
CoStar brought in $573 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of last year. That’s a 13 percent increase compared to the same period in 2021. Profit also jumped 34 percent year-over-year to $124 million.