CoStar, the commercial conglomerate-turned residential portal gate-crasher, announced today that it is acquiring Matterport in a deal worth $1.6 billion, adding what appears to be a highly complementary new business to its growing arsenal of real estate-focused companies.
“CoStar Group and Matterport have nearly identical mission statements of digitizing the world’s real estate,” said Andy Florance, founder and CEO of CoStar Group in a statement. “I look forward to welcoming Matterport to the CoStar Group family and believe that we will be stronger together, in pursuit of our common mission.”
Founded in 2011 and going public in 2021, Matterport pioneered 3D maps of homes and virtual tours, seeing its stock skyrocket during the pandemic as consumers were forced to rely on alternative methods to view homes.
Since then, consumers have largely preferred to view homes in-person, though the kind of technology Matterport pioneered has become much more widespread, with various startups and methods for creating 3D images and virtual tours utilized by portal companies and brokerages.
In a statement, Matterport Chair and CEO RJ Pittman focused on the “3D digital twin technology and AI-driven property intelligence” the company will pair with CoStar’s deep access to property data and analytics.
“We are thrilled to join forces with CoStar Group, a long-standing customer and partner with a shared vision for transforming global real estate through technology and digitization,” he said. “(W)e believe that this powerful combination will transform how properties are marketed, sold and managed worldwide.”
CoStar is in the middle of a billion-dollar marketing push for its residential portal, Homes.com, with the company promising transformative new offerings for both agents and consumers focused on granular neighborhood data and a new business model emphasizing high-quality leads for listing agents.
CoStar noted in a release announcing the acquisition that Homes.com already features Matterport’s 3D virtual tours, as does its rental and commercial portals. CoStar also claimed it was one of the earliest adopters of Matterport technology.
“CoStar Group intends to support and invest in research and development opportunities to further develop Matterport’s spatial technology, including the application of AI and machine learning to extract information from the 3D spatial data library as well as using generative artificial intelligence to imagine and reimagine physical spaces,” Florance said.
The acquisition is still subject to review by regulators, and must be approved by Matterport stockholders. It is expected to be finalized within the year, according to the release.
Matterport’s stock shot up almost 200% following the announcement, while CoStar stock rose a modest 0.15%.
