Inman

ZipRealty customers gain stake in brokerage

ZipRealty’s successful November IPO included a directed shares program that offered ZipRealty customers the option to purchase shares of common stock at the launch price, the company said today.

ZipRealty reserved up to 5 percent of the company’s common stock for purchase at the launch price for anyone who bought or sold a home with ZipRealty prior to Sept. 30, 2004, as well as for employees.

ZipRealty commenced its initial public offering of 4.55 million shares of common stock at $13 per share on Nov. 10, 2004. The IPO’s underwriters exercised an option to sell an additional 682,500 shares of stock at the offering price, bringing net proceeds to $61.3 million.

More than 13,000 customers were eligible to participate in the directed shares program. As of Sept. 30, 2004, ZipRealty had more than 400,000 active registered users who had accessed the Web site within the last nine months, and since the company’s founding in 1999, it has closed more than 16,100 real estate transactions with an aggregate transaction value of approximately $5 billion.

ZipRealty is a full-service residential real estate brokerage with licensed agents in 12 major metropolitan areas including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix, Seattle, San Diego, San Jose, Sacramento, Boston and the greater Washington, D.C., area.

Through the first nine months of this year, ZipRealty generated $44.7 million in revenue and had $2.24 million in net operating income, according to company filings.

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