Zillow Acquires HotPads for $16 Million

Mashable

by Seth Fiegerman

Zillow has acquired HotPads, a real estate listings site that focuses on rentals, for $16 million in cash, the two companies announced Monday.

This is Zillow’s sixth acquisition in less than two years, but the first of a mainly consumer-facing company. For Zillow, the goal of the acquisition is to expand its rental selection and appeal to the younger demographic who typically prefer to rent rather than buy.

“This acquisition represents a significant step-change for Zillow Rentals, allowing us to dramatically increase the number of leads we send to landlords,” said Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow, in a statement. “HotPads has a younger, complementary and rental-focused audience. Now Zillow will become even more relevant to consumers at the beginning of their real estate life cycle.”

Aside from boosting its rental offerings, Rascoff also noted that Zillow was interested in acquiring HotPads’ engineering in order to “accelerate our innovation and monetization of our rental marketplace.”

Earlier this month, Zillow acquired Mortech, a mortgage technology company, for $12 million. Right before that, the real estate listings company acquired BuyFolio, a New York real estate shopping platform, for an undisclosed sum.

Zillow’s stock was down by about a quarter of a percent after hours following the news, trading at $26.17 a share.

Image courtesy of geograph.org.uk.