After a tumultuous series of events, the battle between listing portals may have finally reached an end. Tuesday, ListHub-syndicated listings vanished from all Zillow Group websites, calling to close ongoing legal wrangling between Zillow Group and ListHub owner Move, Inc., operator of realtor.com®.
“Move is moving full steam ahead on its mission of putting real estate at the fingertips of consumers and connecting them with the indispensable services of real estate professionals,” Move, Inc. said in a statement to RISMedia. “The stakes just got higher for Zillow Group. Not only is it facing the daunting challenge of integrating two businesses, it now has to attempt to duplicate ListHub’s comprehensive and accurate listings database.
Meanwhile, realtor.com continues to strengthen its position as the best digital real estate destination for consumers, advertisers and agents and brokers.”
To mitigate the loss of listings, Zillow has been working feverishly to secure listing data from MLSs nationwide. At press time, Zillow had signed agreements with more than 70 MLS partners.
“Come April 8, our listings will be more robust and accurate than ever before – a huge benefit for consumers and agents as we head into home selling season,” said Errol Samuelson, Zillow Group chief industry development officer, in a previous statement. “The process of establishing new partnerships has been incredibly encouraging, and we continue to talk to MLSs across the country and sign new contracts every day.”
Control over listings became a point of contention between the parties earlier this year. In an SEC filing on January 6, Zillow revealed it would not renew its four-year listing data share agreement with Threewide Corporation, operator of ListHub (and also owned by Move). Zillow confirmed to RISMedia that “a few hundred thousand” of Zillow’s 3.6 million listings would be affected by the termination of the agreement.
That same week, Zillow launched the Zillow® Data Dashboard, a listing management and reporting platform for MLSs and brokerages.
In response, ListHub penned a letter to its customers and partners releasing details of a deal proposed to Zillow prior to the January 6 filing.
Just days after the FTC approved Zillow’s acquisition of Trulia, ListHub announced it would end its listing agreement with Trulia on February 26. The agreement was in effect until June 2016. Zillow promptly filed a temporary restraining order to maintain the partnership, which was granted until March 12. At that time, a California judge lifted the restraining order and set an end date of April 7 for ListHub’s agreement with Trulia.
ListHub is owned by Move, Inc., which was acquired by News Corp in September of last year. The merger was finalized in November.
Stay tuned to RISMedia.com for continuing updates on this and other industry topics.
