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Rupert Murdoch Wants to Sell You Your Next Home

By:
Jacob Davidson
4 min read

UPDATE—3:28 P.M.

Home buyers take note, your next house could come courtesy of the Murdoch empire. On Tuesday, the Australian billionaire's News Corp announced it was buying Move Inc., the real estate listings company that owns Move.com, Realtor.com, and other online listings websites, for $950 million.

While Move is hardly the market leader among listing websites—competitors Trulia and Zillow account for 71% of traffic to ComScore's real estate category—it long claimed to be the most accurate. Thanks to an agreement with the National Association of Realtors, the company's sites have partnerships with more than 800 multiple listings services, which provide real estate listing information as soon as a home comes on the market. Zillow and Trulia have previously been dinged for out-of-date information, and Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff raised eyebrows when he appeared to suggest that fixing stale listings wasn't one of the company's top priorities. (Zillow has stressed that the CEO's statement was taken out of context, and emphasized their constant effort to improve listings.)

But despite Move's data advantage, and recent ad campaigns stressing its superior accuracy, taking on Trulia and Zillow has been an uphill battle. That battle became even more difficult in July, when Zillow purchased Trulia for $3.5 billion, creating an online real estate behemoth. News Corp's entrance into the market may finally give Move the marketing muscle to fight back. News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson signalled the company's dedication to Move's business, stating that the acquisition would make "online real estate a powerful pillar of our portfolio." He also indicated the company will strongly support Move's brand. "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.," said Thomson.

A News Corp-powered Move might ultimately be a boon for homebuyers by reducing Zillow/Trulia's hold on the online listings market. When Zillow's purchase of Trulia was first announced, some worried the new company would have more leverage to charge real estate agents higher advertising fees, and that this charge might be passed on to the consumer. More robust competition may give agents more options for online advertising and reduce Zillow/Trulia's bargaining power. However, other experts believe the News Corp. acquisition will have little real effect on consumers. Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel Inc, told Money the Move acquisition is unlikely to be felt by your average house hunter.

"I think what you're seeing is [the housing market] improve," said Miller. "There's more focus on the housing sector, there's a lot of cross branding opportunities with News Corp. and their holdings with real estate, but I don't see it having any real impact on transactions. I don't think the consumer is going to see this."

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