In yet another foray into the residential real estate space, real estate investment and property management software company Yardi Systems has acquired Real Estate Electronic Publishing Company Inc. (REEPCO), the company announced Tuesday.
The San Diego-based publishing company better known as InternetCrusade, operates the RealTown online real estate network and created the National Association of Realtors’ e-PRO certification program. InternetCrusade’s contract with NAR ended in December, the company said. InternetCrusade also offers e-mail, blogging, and domain services for real estate professionals.
"With access to REEPCO’s sales channels, publishing and content syndication resources and educational training infrastructure, this acquisition will make many of our new products available to a large number of real estate professionals," said Anant Yardi, president of Yardi, in a statement.
The company’s 16 employees will remain in their current positions, the company said.
"It’s business as usual for RealTown and InternetCrusade. That’s one of the nice things about Yardi — they come in and don’t upset the apple cart," said Saul Klein, president and co-founder of InternetCrusade and CEO of Point2 Technology Inc., which Yardi acquired four months ago.
Historically focused on the commercial and multifamily real estate sectors, Yardi expanded the scope of its operations when it acquired Point2 and real estate data website PropertyShark last year.
Yardi last week filed a lawsuit against a competitor, RealPage Inc., charging copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation and unfair competition, among other claims. RealPage responded in a statement that it "believes that Yardi’s hidden intent in filing this lawsuit is to inhibit EverGreen (RealPage acquired assets from EverGreen in 2009) from competing with Yardi’s consulting service organization and that this lawsuit is a tactic to limit alternative choices for Yardi clients.
"RealPage intends to defend this action vigorously and to protect EverGreen’s right to provide services to clients that they share with Yardi," according to that statement.
