Dive Brief:
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It looks like the merger of the two dominant real estate websites—Zillow and Trulia—is imminent after their shareholders approved it on Dec. 18 and the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly set to sign off on it.
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Real estate news site Inman.com quoted a Notre Dame law professor who said he expects the FTC will “say there’s not a problem” with Zillow’s $3.5 billion bid to acquire its competitor, Trulia. Zillow said in November it expects to seal the deal after Feb. 1.
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Zillow and its partner sites attracted 57.7 unique visitors in July, according to The Wall Street Journal, and Trulia had 35.8 million. Their next-largest competitor, Realtor.com and Move.com—owned by Move Inc.—had 25.3 million visitors.
Dive Insight:
The FTC is considering whether combining these two powerhouse portals, on which house hunters can search for homes and apply for pre-approval of mortgages, will give the resulting company a lock on online advertising. Realtors, who pay the sites to publish their contact information next to listings, have said that without competition from each other, the Zillow-Trulia enterprise could raise prices to unaffordable levels. But Zillow’s chief executive, Spencer Rascoff, told The Journal that agents have plenty of other opportunities to advertise on a growing number of online real estate portals.